Meeting Them
by Indigo the Hedgehog
Summary: Meredith finds herself working in the League of Super Evil under Frogg, but what is her story exactly? Just how did she end up where she is today and could this possibly have been what started the league in the first place?
1. Chapter 1

Authors Note: In actuality, this goes in sync with the events in the story Evil Needs a boost, another fanfiction made by the Evil Overlord Crazy L. I was inspired by it and since Mischief Meredith is my character, I was the one who won her contest; I wanted to dwell into her story more. Basically this is a respond to her two stories Evil Needs a Boost and Meeting You, which is where the title comes from and my story has characters and events from both of them. I got her approval already so this is by far approved. Enjoy!

Update: This chapter has been recently updated so there is some new content but nothing that will change the story dramatically. It is likely other chapters will be updated as well so if you've already read this might not hurt to read again. Hopefully it will be a better read.

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Meredith observed the lair with mild interest as nothing seemed to be going on at the moment. There weren't many evil secret bases that she's been to that were right out in the middle of a neighborhood that practically screamed obvious. When she arrived here late last night she didn't get a very good look around but now seeing it in the daylight reminded her of one of those cheap apartments on a college campus where you could expect chaos. It was better than that surely for with all of the sanitary concerns and housing conditions aside it held a homey quality to it.

She had gotten almost used to this place and the strange characters that lived here. Not too sure if she rushed into joining too hastily at first, especially when finding out that she was the only girl here. Thankfully everyone was pretty nice and welcoming, well, most of them anyways.

Doktor Frogg had tried to tell her that things have been a little tense lately, at least between him and the little red guy called Voltar, who she remembered proclaimed he was leader of the group, and that she should just ignore him. Luckily there hasn't been any trouble since that night she first arrived there, but occasionally does she catch Voltar giving her suspicious glances every now and then, and it was starting to get on her nerves.

Voltar was odd looking for sure, wearing a full red jumpsuit with a mask complimented with two antennas on the top giving him the appearance of an alien. Being the smallest person she'd ever seen she could only guess how many people would mistake him for an alien or just a six year old playing dress up. Then again, she wasn't sure if he was a kid or not from the way he acted but she betted on the former.

His yellow eyes were like two glowing orbs from the black eyeholes of the mask that really animated what he was feeling at the moment. So far all she's seen of him was anger, shock, annoyance, arrogance, unnaturally giddy, and more anger. She would say it was comical to watch him but somehow she didn't see how saying that would have any good results.

Given to recent events he and Frogg apparently weren't on good terms with each other, and she was starting to see why the more she was around Voltar. He already made the impression of being an obnoxious, annoying, ignorant, self-centered moron and that was just from the first morning. She obviously must've not made a good impression on him for he didn't seem to like her at all and either made his way to avoid her or give her dirty looks.

She looked over to the couch and t.v and in fact spotted Voltar glancing at her yet again before turning back to the t.v. It just so happened to be turned on at that moment giving the appearance that he was watching the entire time.

Meredith was about to say something when Red Menace and Cue came into the room and she let her frustration subside. She didn't want to make a scene that might ruin their good moods. They were the only ones to be rather joyful in the household and she could deal with Voltar later.

"So how come you have a different outfit from those other ninja waiters if you worked at Villaynes?" the large green dressed red headed guy known as Red Menace asked Cue. Meredith had no idea how and why he was in an evil group at all. His name didn't imply to him very well since he's in no way a menace and the only thing about him that was red was his hair, but she was thankful for someone with a more innocent and friendly appearance for once. Unlike the rest of his team he always seemed to be the most cheery person for all things that weren't considered evil. He certainly surprised her when he showed her and Cue his action figure collection, most of them being heroes. Even if he wasn't truly evil, she already liked having him around and not just because he was probably the most hygienic guy here.

"Well it's actually something I designed of my own. I like the outfits there so I just customized mine a little, I don't think Jules was very happy about it though. Another reason I quit that place, too much procedure and not enough individuality." the lean, tall, and nicely dressed purple suited Cue explained.

It seemed obvious to Meredith that he wasn't one for being like the crowd, otherwise why would he have such an altered uniform and quit the famous, or infamous depending on how you look at it, Villaynes in the first place? She had to respect him for wanting to make it on his own as a real villain instead of working in that restaurant for all his life as another obscure ninja waiter, even though that doesn't sound obscure at all.

"Hey! I'm watching here!" Voltar shouted in an annoyed tone with their conversation. He'd probably be more interested if the conversation had anything to do with him as he always had something to say when it was about him.

"Oh, sorry little dude-" Cue said as Voltar gave him an annoyed look at being called little again, not one to like being referred to his small size. "I mean, Voltar." Cue quickly corrected which Voltar gave a 'humph' at as he turned back to the t.v showing some odd program of Snail Smack Down. Cue and Red merely went on with their conversation as though nothing happened.

Meredith could sympathize with Cue; he was the newest minion right before her after all. At least he seemed more accepted since he's a guy, plus an ex-ninja waiter who can cook, even if he did annoy Voltar for calling him 'little dude' every so often. Red Menace and he especially seemed to be getting along, out of all the interactions between new members to old members those two just naturally clicked. They both loved to cook, they talked about all sorts of stuff, Cue was even closest to height to Red. She could only hope that maybe she will be as easily accepted into this group as well.

This group was called the League of Super Evil, but in acronyms it spelled L.O.S.E. Things weren't going as the name implied though with Dr. Frogg leading the operations, or at least with the plans that were evil worthy while Voltar's plans were, well, not, to put it simply. From what Frogg had told her and Cue last night Voltar's schemes varied from having an evil neighborhood barbecue party and not inviting any of the neighbors to literally steal candy from a baby and the baby won.

Dr. Frogg's first big achievement in evil she believed was threatening to destroy all of Metrotown with clock bombs, he had a controller that would detonate any kind of clock in the city into the size of an atomic bomb. She was sure she would've never thought of something so simple yet ingenious as that. Since then he has, with the help of the rest of his teammates, defeated the undefeatable Glory Guy. Shortly after that he, this time with the help of Cue, destroyed the Metrotwn-Starville Suspension Bridge with the help of clocks for bombs again.

She had yet to help him with anything or prove what she could do or be useful of any kind which made her stomach turn. She was surprised that Dr. Frogg let her in at all, for all he knows she was some stray average off of the mill girl who had nothing else better to do than join some evil group. That wasn't true in the slightest but how could he know and still let her join? He had no idea of her past and yet when she made the quick decision to ask him if she could join he said yes. She was so happy that he accepted her offer at the time but now she's starting to have second thoughts.

_I wonder if he regrets letting me join,_ she thought right when she felt someone bump into her and turns to see that it is Dr. Frogg himself. She was standing in front of the hallway entrance, blocking it, and she immediately scolded herself for her absentmindedness.

"Oh Dr. Frogg, sorry, I should've moved." She quickly said embarrassed.

He wasn't at all normal and stood out more than Voltar even. He had a metal chin and metal claws to boot with only three pincer like fingers, really living up to his name. He wore huge goggles that didn't enlarge his black eyes by much but she found it comical as well. A mad scientist with a german accent (that she positively loved) wearing a blue jumpsuit, and with spiky green hair he was definitely a sight for sore eyes. Yet those were some of the very qualities that intrigued her the most, she could only imagine his background story.

"Um, its okay, I wasn't looking if anyone was around." He answered back, moving around her into the hallway. It appeared he was deep in thought about something, most likely waiting for the Group of Defenders the heroes of Starville, ironically G.O.D in acronyms, to respond back to the destruction of the bridge not too long ago. Dr. Frogg destroyed the bridge hoping to get their attention on him and they were supposed to defeat G.O.D in battle.

Meredith thought that was pretty soon for right when she joined, even if she had told him she had powers she had yet to show them. She was afraid her powers were too dangerous and too much to handle for them and they may even see her as a monster. She could very much say the same about Doomageddon, the pan-dimensional hellhound of the group. A yellow lizard like creature with orange brown stripes, a spiked ball tail, horns and sharp teeth, and wearing a brown hood made him the most intimidating of the group period. Everyone seemed to treat him pretty normal though, even going so far as to Red Menace treating him like a regular household pet dog. Not that she wanted to be treated like a dog, but just another member of the team.

She sighed as she went back to the small storage room where her temporary sleeping quarters were. Cue had gotten the couch in the living room, Dr. Frogg figuring she'd want a room to herself for obvious reasons which she was truly grateful for, even if the couch was preferable to the cot she had to sleep on.

She looked at the many things stacked up on shelves; many things she guessed were Dr. Frogg's old inventions, but others as old knick-knacks of the group's. She curiously picked up a rusty shovel that looked like it had been used for gardening once upon a time. She put it back and could spot boxes upon boxes in the corner of the room by her cot and the sprawled out blanket she used which had many patches in it. The boxes all showed crude marker written names on them of the members Voltar, Red, Dr. Frogg, which was misspelled on some of them, and Doomageddon which was just Doom. She guessed they all had stuff of theirs in them and she figured she already snooped enough as it is.

However luck was not on her side as she hit her foot somewhat hard on one of the shelves making her stumble back into another shelf. The shelves were old and therefore broke against her weight and soon were coming down onto her. In a brief moment of fear her powers activated, turning herself into a shadow as the top half of her body was black except for her hair, and repelled most of the hit. All the supplies littering the floor around her as the shelf fell to the side in a loud crash.

She had not expected to have her powers activate but they usually did on account of her mood, whether it be scared or angry, but are much more unpredictable in those ways. A preferable way to activate her powers is by concentrating in a calm manner that could be difficult in some situations, but that's only when she really needs it. She did not like using her powers carelessly either, that would prove dangerous and reckless all on its own especially if she didn't want **him** to find her that is.

Not a moment too soon after the crash a knock on the door was heard alerting Meredith immediately and as quickly as her powers activated they disappeared.

"Meredith, I heard a crash, what's going on?" Meredith recognizing the voice as Dr. Frogg's desperately tried to think of an excuse. Whatever it was however, Dr. Frogg came in before she got the chance to say anything. He looked at mess and pretty much figured out what had happened.

"Sorry, I hit my foot and then bumped into a shelf and…yeah." She said feeling embarrassment well up in her again. _Great! He probably thinks I'm a total airhead now, _she thought while trying to keep a somewhat positive demeanor on the outside.

"Is that all, heh, don't worry about it. I actually used to be very, if you might say, accident prone. This is not at all compared to what I used to do. Come on, I'll help you." Dr. Frogg picked up the nearest odd trinket with a puzzled expression muttered something about Voltar and then went on to the next. Meredith as well started gathering things and decided to start a conversation.

"So, is this all your guys stuff?" She asked.

"Yeah, things that belonged to us before we joined the league, basically attic worthy belongings, but since our attic is too full, this is where we put old stuff. It's been a while since I actually looked in here, a lot of mementos from my earlier days of an evil genius." He grinned at the memories of his old invention days. "I've come a far way since then. Now I'm onto bigger and badder things from just trying to ruin other neighborhood kid's birthday parties." He said getting an even eviler grin on his face.

Meredith couldn't help smiling throughout this; she enjoyed hearing Frogg sharing a bit of his past with her. He had a way of explaining and telling stuff that made her drawn into whatever he was talking about. It made her interested and she never got tired of him, and she wondered why as a slight blush escaped from her.

"Birthday parties?" She asked in amusement.

"Heh, well, it was a start." He said rather embarrassed.

"No, I mean, that is actually pretty evil for such a young age, assuming you were a kid at the time." She said picking up another odd trinket.

"Don't worry, I was." He assured. She was about to reply when a book caught her eye and she put down her pile of assortments to pick it up. It had dust all over it so she brushed it off only to find that the book seemed permanently stained with dust. She could make out a bit of writing, most notably the words 'high school' which already brought some unpleasant memories for her.

"Hey Dr. Frogg, who does this belong to?" She asked holding out the book to him. He took it with one of his claws and after a second or two his eyes shot wide open.

"Could this be…it couldn't…but…" He opened the book to the first page with Meredith looking over his shoulder. In the top left-hand corner of the first page was a name that read 'Wilbert'.

"Wilbert? What is a book belonging to a Wilbert doing here?" Then it donned on her what kind of book this was, a yearbook. Not just any yearbook, but one probably belonging to one of the members of l.o.s.e.

"This is a yearbook of my high school." Dr. Frogg said, not believing that there had been a yearbook all this time from their old high school and they didn't even know it.

Meredith shocked a moment, asks hesitantly, "So, are you Wilbert?" hoping that wasn't true.

"N-No, but that is Voltar's real name. This must be his yearbook." He answered; a darker tone in his voice while saying Voltar.

Meredith breathed out a sigh of relief at that. "Good." she said aloud, Frogg glancing at her for a second. "Well, I mean, I don't think that name suits you is all." She added quickly.

Dr. Frogg smiled and continued, "Truthfully we, as in Voltar, Red, and me, had all gone to the same high school before ever forming the group. We never even knew that until a while ago. I threw my high school yearbook long ago and I don't know about Red, but I guess Voltar kept his this whole time. He probably had forgotten all about it." He flipped through the pages, careful not to rip any of them by mistake.

"Wow, that's definitely something you don't find out every day…" She paused, not sure if she should ask anything else on account that this might be a touchy subject. Meredith had a feeling that usually all high school memories were touchy in some way, at least in her case it was.

"Yeah, it was shocking, but I came to realize that maybe it wasn't so shocking after all, that no wonder Red was Reggie and no wonder Voltar was…Wilbert. It made sense because-"

At that moment someone knocked on the door making both Meredith and Dr. Frogg jump a little from the sudden noise. "Meredith, lunch is ready!" Red Menace called before heading to Dr. Frogg's lab, assuming he was there.

Dr. Frogg and Meredith both stood up, both noticing that they still haven't completely cleaned the place yet. They had been too focused on the yearbook to finish cleaning. "We can finish cleaning after lunch." He said handing the yearbook back to Meredith before walking out the door. Meredith nodded and watched him leave before putting away the book.

The book was on a new page showing a roster of students in the said grade, many of them looked awkward in one way or another even if most of them wore smiles. _The ones that looked sure of themselves were always the ones with the most annoying pictures,_ Meredith thought. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn't mean they're all good.

She then curiously wondered if she could find Dr. Frogg or any of the other guys' pictures from when they were younger. She knew of Red's name being Reggie, but that sounded like a nickname as well and yearbooks only listed your real name. Voltar's real name which was Wilbert and she wasn't too keen on finding out what he looked like. _Maybe his face was full of acne and that's why he wears a mask_, she laughed at the thought. However, something about this yearbook did seem familiar to her as she skimmed through the pictures and flipped to the next page.

_What am I doing? This is private stuff, I shouldn't be looking through this,_ she thought again as she was about to put the book up but her eyes fell onto a new picture that literarily stopped her breathing. The picture was of a boy who looked to be around nineteen who had very long dark black hair and a handsome but narrow face. He had a smug smile and his icy blue eyes stood out from his rather perturbing picture. It gave the impression that he was the kind of guy who knew something about you and would likely use it against you. Below the picture was his name, and she prayed that it was a typo even though she knew it right away.

She had to regain some composure as she fumbled through some more pages to see if her growing fear was correct. _Maybe it's just some guy who looks exactly like him! And just happens to have the same name as him, it has to be!_ She thought until she spotted exactly what she was searching and dreading for. She stared at it with wide eyes and her own breathing was the only sound she could hear at that moment.

There it was. A picture of herself during high school, long light brownish hair with long bangs that almost covered her red eyes and the shy small smile on her face, there was no doubt it was her. This was where everything that lead to her powers and her life as a villain began, and the soon to be League of Super Evil was in the midst of it.


	2. Chapter 2

Meredith didn't say much or eat anything at lunch after she found her picture in the yearbook. She merely played with her food with her fork having lost her appetite. Even if the food was usually delicious due to Cue's cooking the last thing on her mind was hunger. She stood up to put her dish away earning a look from Frogg, Cue, and Red. She said she was full and briefly told Dr. Frogg she would clean up the mess in the storage room herself and walked off without hearing his response. All she could think about was getting back to that yearbook and maybe, just maybe she had been mistaken.

"Is Meredith okay Dr. Frogg? She didn't look at all well during lunch; she barely nibbled the food." Red asked concerned, especially when Cue's cooking was so good that it'd be hard to believe anyone would dislike it. Cue as well looked to Dr. Frogg in a concerned manner, even if it was hard to see his expression underneath his mask.

"I'm not sure, she seemed normal when I left her room." Cue and Red then gave him a look and he immediately added, "She accidentally knocked some stuff down and I came in to help her clean up."

"Great, another screw up." Voltar mumbled from his stool as he reached for the ketchup, not really caring much about their conversation until now.

"What?!" Dr. Frogg asked. Something about that comment rubbed him the wrong way, either from Voltar referring to him or something else.

"Well, what else do you expect from a girl, especially her. I don't trust her, I mean; she already mistook you as leader if that were bad enough, but I doubt she's even evil. All she's done is, well, nothing, except take up more room in the lair." Voltar replied while trying to squeeze the ketchup out.

Dr. Frogg held his tongue, about to say 'you should be talking', but didn't want to start another argument, especially if G.O.D was going to go after him. He didn't want to ruin his plan in any way only because he and Voltar couldn't get along. It was important that they all would work together efficiently without any bad blood in the group, but Voltar had a way of making it seem very unlikely.

"Oh yeah, and waste food." Voltar added while pouring lots of ketchup.

Dr. Frogg abruptly stood up, but before anything else could be said Red Menace immediately spoke. "By the way Cue, this meal is delicious! Maybe we can cook dinner together and you can show me some of your recipes!" in a too gleeful voice. It was obvious from the way he said it that he just wanted to stop the incoming argument. Dr. Frogg took this as a signal to sit down and continue eating, deciding to not lose his cool head, but just barely.

Voltar thankfully left, taking his lunch with him so he could eat while watching for the news report from G.O.D. Voltar for once was eager for the news since he only agreed to Frogg's plan in order for him to get famous from it as being the ones to defeat the Group of Defenders. He didn't even seem fazed at his prior comments or Dr. Frogg's reaction if he at all remembered once he sat down.

"That would be nice, sure." Cue responded back after the long pause. He and Red looked at Frogg again, both looking slightly uneasy at what just happened. Even so, as Dr. Frogg ate silently and they started another conversation, a sour taste seemed to have risen into the air, and it wasn't from the food.

---

Unfortunately when Meredith looked through the pages, she found her picture yet again with her name under it. _Meredith Romine, why couldn't I be named something less original like Mary Smith?_ She flopped down on her cot with the yearbook in hand and stared out into space.

_How, how was this possible?_ She thought only to turn some more pages as if the answer was somewhere in that book. She then thought back to her friends, her long ago high school friends that she had long tried to forget but they were in too many good memories to. She searched the pictures, they went in alphabetical order for last name and she eventually found one of her friends in the L's.

Sydney Larson. She looked at the picture of a smiling girl with rather large glasses and straight cut long brownish blonde hair. Her cheeks looked strained as if her mouth was tired from smiling much. Meredith smiled slightly at the picture; it had been forever since she saw Sydney, even if it was only a picture.

Meredith then thought of her other friend and the memory gripped at her. She turned some pages back to the beginning since her last name started with a C. She soon found the picture and a wave of sorrow fell over her.

Blair Cunningham, the picture showing a narrow faced girl with very short dark brown hair and narrow eyes. She wore a bored expression as though getting her picture taken was a colossal waste of time to her. The memories flooded into her, and Meredith felt tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn't help thinking why this all had to happen, _why did everything, when going so great, have to be ruined?_ Anger seethed at her as she was about to toss the yearbook away when there was a knock on her door.

"Hey Meredith, we're going over the plan to defeat G.O.D. It looks like they finally decided to go after me, so just meet us in the living room." Dr. Frogg said. He just heard their response on t.v. while Voltar was impatiently watching for it. She wondered if he was going to ask about her wanting to clean up the room by herself so abruptly, but thankfully he didn't.

"I'm coming." She said as she put the yearbook down and went to the door. She briefly stopped to glance back at it and then shut the door. She had better things to concentrate on now, such as the defeating of the Group of Defenders plan. She couldn't let her past get in the way and she certainly couldn't let Dr. Frogg or any of the other members find out or she would very well be leading herself into a dead end. No, she had to keep this to herself, and that also meant the fact that she went to high school with them as well.

Once she met with everyone in the living room, Frogg standing up in front of the t.v, Red, Cue and Voltar on the couch, and Doomageddon on the floor, she felt guilt in the pit of her stomach. She didn't want to be closing herself off from them, they all really did seem like great guys to her, with the exception of Voltar. She had to remind herself they probably wouldn't feel so great about her if they knew what she was, and that it was for the best that she didn't say anything. She chose to stand and soon Dr. Frogg started explaining the plan, she paid close attention but in the back of her mind couldn't help wondering, _would it be so bad to at least tell Frogg?_

_---_

It was nighttime and Meredith had been helping Dr. Frogg in his lab for the remainder of the evening, amazed with all of his inventions and trying to learn all she can from him as well as distracting her mind from other unwanted thoughts. They had decided to confront the Group of Defenders tomorrow and were all preparing for the upcoming battle. She flustered as she picked up a wrench she dropped and handed it to him as he was working on something.

"Thanks." He responded not taking his eyes off of his work. She glanced around, finding this place to be rather fascinating, a lot more preferable to the other lab she used to be acquainted with. All the different types of machinery were bordered across the room, she could only guess what their uses were for but it was like being in some old sci-fi movie scene. Dr. Frogg looked perfectly relaxed in this room unlike any other place in the lair and it made her happy to see such a nice side to him. She also felt much more relaxed in the strange room; it was the kind of place that made you feel like you had all to yourself without actually being secluded from everything else.

Her mind drifted to memories of art class for some reason, it felt just like this, a place where she could have the freedom to be who she was and had all to herself. Yet she wasn't by herself, there was someone else in art class with her. A guy she recalled, but she couldn't place her finger on who he was.

"Meredith?" Meredith turned to Dr. Frogg who was looking at her curiously. She flushed from embarrassment as she realized she was staring.

"Sorry! I was just thinking of something."

"What is it?" He asked taking a break from his invention for a bit.  
"Nothing important really, I just remembered something is all." She paused and glanced at Dr. Frogg. She wasn't sure if he would want to hear about her high school experience, even if he unknowingly was in high school with her. But he wouldn't care about that stuff now right? And it sounded like high school was a bad memory for him too; she didn't want to bring anything bad up, especially before their battle.

He seemed intent on her for some reason as he waited for her to continue. After a few moments he then decidedly gave up and turned back to his invention. He looked at her from the corner of his eye, not wanting to prod but was wondering what was going on with her.

_Who knew I'd be interacting with a girl anyways?_ Dr. Frogg thought. If he didn't use his brave booster, the old him would be nervous beyond belief with a girl. Now he could act normally around one without going into some shocked concussion, but that didn't necessarily mean he was cured. But in the back of his mind, the fact he can be himself in front of Meredith so casually like this did make him wonder why.

Meredith let out a sigh as she had a war in her mind whether or not to tell him anything. _I might as well tell him a little bit about my past, and it doesn't have to be __**too**__ important._ She also didn't want him getting suspicious about her, that's one of the last things she wanted. Besides, it might be good to finally have a listening ear to have for once about her problems.

She turned to him and breathed in before starting. "I just couldn't help think back to my high school years when we found that yearbook and…" She paused looking to Dr. Frogg who was looking at her again, a bit surprised that she responded back. "… I think I just need someone to listen." She said, and that was basically the truth. She never got to tell what happened to her before to anybody, and this might be as good of a chance as any to let it out.

Surprisingly, Dr. Frogg smiled a little to that. In an odd way, he was glad that Meredith was going to tell him what was up with her, and for a change, someone wanted to explain something to him and he being the one to listen. "Sure." He didn't think Meredith was the kind of person to brag about their high school years like Voltar, and he needed a break from his invention and defeat G.O.D plan as a whole. It was also important to not overstress himself for the battle if he wanted it to go accordingly.

She smiled as well before beginning. "Well, to start it off right, this was around eleventh grade, somewhere in the middle of the year. Life everyday of school was not too great and not too horrible, and I usually sat in my seat and did my work. I wasn't very vocal in class and many people thought I was a shy wallflower girl or something, but anyways, it all began in English class…"

---

Meredith was drawing, ignoring the rest of the classmates and their nonstop talking, she had grown to just droning them out ever since middle school. Everyone usually left her to herself which was just fine by her, but she usually was surprised when someone talked to her. In this case someone poked her instead. _Ugh, I don't feel like giving any more paper to you Tyler,_ she thought as she turned around only to be greeted by a new face.

He was a very tall guy with long black hair that reached to his shoulders and rather pale blue eyes on his narrow face. He was quite handsome, but him that close and towering over her made her jump for a second, having not even seen or hear him come over that way. If she had been paying attention she would have seen him coming into the classroom and the teacher directing him to her way.

"Hey there cutie, what's your name?" He asked.

At being called cutie, she froze up for a moment, never once being called that directly from a male student at school. She quickly dismissed this as she thought it might be a joke and that he's probably just saying it to see her reaction and make fun of her, its not that uncommon.

"…Meredith." She said cautiously, not letting her guard down.

"Meredith, cool, just wanted to know who I'll be sitting behind." He said taking the empty seat behind her. She didn't see this coming nor was she looking forward to this either. She then finally noticed most of the class, excluding the teacher, looking shocked as they had been watching the whole scene taking place. _Great, this can't be good,_ she thought as she felt another tap on her shoulder. She turned once more to look at the new student behind her. "By the way, I'm Demetres, you might have heard of me."

"Nope, sorry." She replied and quickly turned back around.

"Good, cause it wouldn't be this much fun if you did."

---

"So, who was this Demetres guy exactly?" Dr. Frogg asked somewhat unsurely.

"Well, he was a senior who was actually in another class and got switched to my class. Uh, why do you ask?" She asked uneasily. There was more to him than just that, but she didn't want to get into that just yet.

"Something about his name seems familiar, I'm pretty sure I knew someone with that name." Dr. Frogg said tapping a claw on his metal chin. From Meredith's story the description of him was vaguely put into his mind, though he wasn't sure how he could know the Demetres from Meredith's high school. He didn't think it was at all a common name, and the fact he knew someone with that name made it even more probable. Either way, so far from Meredith's story, he did NOT like him at all, which that alone puzzled him greatly. "Anyways, go on."

"O-Okay." She said, not sure if Dr. Frogg really did know Demetres since they were at high school together, once again rethinking her decision on telling the story but continued nevertheless. "Then after that I met up with my two best friends in school…."

---

"Oh my gosh! Demetres is sitting behind you in English?!" Meredith sighed, this was about the sixth time she heard that today, but at least it was coming from her friends and not some random girl in the hallway. Gossip sure got around fast, and she had no idea what was so great about this Demetres guy anyways to make him sitting behind her be considered important news.

"Yeah, and it wasn't fun. He kept bothering me the whole time; he even had the nerve to steal one of my drawings and have me play cat and mouse with it." Meredith answered. That guy bugged her to no extent and it was only the first day with him. She was already considering asking the teacher to move to a different seat, but she didn't want to look inconsiderate either.

"I don't know. From the sound of it, he just might LIKE you." Her first speaking friend Sydney said, empathizing the like.

Meredith gave an annoyed look to her shorter friend. Sydney's long blondish brown hair went just under her shoulders and her big glasses fell perfectly into place on her face. She was usually optimistic and somewhat naive when it came to these matters. If there were two words that could sum up Sydney, it's boy crazy. She has yet to find a boyfriend like the rest of them, the reason probably being that she tends to come on a little too strong on the object of her affections. She always gets rejected for that and she then kicks her said object of her affections in the shin. Even with her constantly finding a new guy to crush on and then get dumped by, doesn't at all stop her from meddling in her two friend's love lives.

"If he liked her, he wouldn't be acting like an idiot bugging her throughout class if he could better spend his time doing his work." commented Meredith's other best friend Blair. Blair was a tall, fit girl with a naturally tanned body. Along with her narrow face and short dark brown hair, you'd think she'd be very popular with the boys. Unfortunately that was not the case, if only due to her personality.

She was a cold, highly intellectual, untrusting, and very intimidating girl that you did not want to get on her bad side with. Not only boys but girls were nervous around her too. Once during middle school a girl cussed at Blair and she basically chewed her out for all she's worth like no tomorrow. Everyone usually avoided her on that account, but she was a very nice and understanding person when you got to know her, even if she had difficulty showing it.

"Really Blair, you don't get boys at all! He's bugging Meredith to get her attention because he wants her to notice him!" explained Sydney like it was common knowledge.

"Whatever, doesn't make it any less stupid." Blair remarked. Blair and Sydney had differing opinions about everything. Blair supported studying and being an above average student, while Sydney rather have fun and just not try any harder if you already have good grades. In terms of romance, Sydney is obsessed with it and Blair was one of the least romantic people around. Needless to say it was hard to believe that they were best friends as well. No matter what though, Meredith was glad she had them around; she didn't know how she could survive high school otherwise.

"So if you don't want Demetres, can I have him?" Sydney asked which Meredith felt like pounding her head on a locker in response.

"What's the big deal about him anyways?" She finally managed to ask.

"What's the big deal about him? His family owns Shadow Tech. Corp! He's even next in line to take over it; of course he's the only one next in line but still! Plus he's a bad boy, as well as cool, really smart, not bad in sports either, and really hot!" Sydney exclaimed with a dreamy expression. Meredith scratched her head as Blair rolled her eyes.

"So where does the bad boy part come in?" Blair asked not getting what the big deal about him was either, the fact he comes from a rich family not interesting her in the least. If there was one thing about Blair when it came to people, she was usually a good judge of character.

"Well, he's been cutting classes for a while now, and there's even been some rumors that he keeps having a run in with the law for stuff, but never got arrested or anything. That's just what I heard."

"Okay, not only is he an idiot, he's a delinquent too." Blair commented.

"I'll side with Blair on this one." answered Meredith.

"Urg, you guys are hopeless! I can't wait till the day you two are head over heels for some guy!"

"I have more important things to worry about than some guy like for instance lunch, so can we please get to the cafeteria before they run out of food?" Blair said.

"Yeah, besides, I doubt there's a guy for me, at least in this school." Meredith said as they all headed to the cafeteria, but if there's one thing that they all learn soon enough it's that life has a way of being cruelly ironic.


	3. Chapter 3

At this time down the hallway, a tall thin student who wore glasses and had odd features such as metal claws and a metal chin, was cautiously looking around trying to avoid being ambushed by Wilbert and his group of cronies. He didn't want his lunch taken yet again this week, but he had a bad feeling he was only trying to delay the inevitable, he was only thankful that this didn't happen as frequently as it used to be.

His name was August K. Frogg but he preferred being called Frogg oddly enough. Originally from Germany and a bit of a German accent he was more than a little different from the rest of his classmates and unfortunately when he started elementary school no one could comprehend that. They all judged him without getting to know him and so dubbed him a loser from then on. It followed him all the way to high school as well as the same classmates such as his number one bully Wilbert.

Ever since the start of high school he was usually the prime victim until the year after he lost his chin from ramming into a pole. It might be because of the fact he got into that accident that made Wilbert's group wary of being near him, not wanting to get into trouble if he got into yet another accident.

He wasn't very lucky if you couldn't tell, already having lost both of his hands during elementary and he didn't want to lose any more body parts. He did not want to go through life being half robot. That only about reduced the bullying to them only taking his lunch two times a week, but it was a lot better than everyday. The fact that he was also no longer the only target of Wilbert and his group helped a lot as well. There were at least two other guys he knew of that got bullied by him as well, guys that were also very low on the popularity scale.

Paul Hartmon was one, not really the sharpest knife in the drawer. He was a tall, thin, lanky guy with long hair that went into a ponytail, and always wore sleepy look. His clothing choice included loose pants, ragged shirt, dirty shoes, and whatever else that looked like it was thrown on in a usually slept in classes and when the teacher would get on to him his excuse would be something on the lines of 'I don't have very good time management is all' before falling right back to sleep. Wilbert and his gang usually blew spit balls and threw crumbled paper balls at him, but not really bothering him much. The most they could do was wake him up with Paul looking around the classroom before going right back to sleep. Frogg wondered if Paul was even aware that he was being picked on by them in class, but if so he didn't think much of it.

He had Paul in a few classes before so he was somewhat acquainted with him. He also recalled having him as a partner for a lab assignment before, mostly because no one was paired with him and Paul being asleep was automatically his partner. Paul was actually much more tentative and hard working than he appeared and even seemed to respect Frogg to some degree, most likely since he was the smartest student when it came to science related work. They even held a pretty good sized friendly conversation, Paul being very talkative when talked to which no one usually did due to him sleeping all the time. Whether he and Paul could become friends he didn't know but he wasn't too eager to try after his last friendship.

Then there was Stevie Anderson who was really named Steve but was given that nickname from the many bullies that tormented him aside from Wilbert's group. Steve might have been the closest person to being even less popular than him if not equal that he knew of. Steve in an odd sense was normal like everyone else but he just liked anything lame that you could imagine. He had the tackiest of stuff, wore the geekiest clothing, not even Frogg himself would dare be caught wearing what Steve usually wore. At least he wore regular plain guy clothes that most boys his age would wear, hopefully to compensate the fact he was not like most boys.

Needless to say, Steve was the perfect victim and has been bullied to the point of not caring anymore. He even started something of his own line at least with Wilbert saying, 'I don't care' which Wilbert tends to ignore. To Steve, Wilbert was the least threatening bully in the school probably because Wilbert was so unintelligent and mediocre in comparison to the many others that bully Steve everyday. In a way, Frogg admired the fact that Steve basically handled Wilbert as if he was a pushover, but since he and Wilbert had history it was a lot harder for him to stand up to him.

Right now all Frogg could hope for right now was that Wilbert was busy with someone else today and would forget about him, but he had the familiar incoming bad feeling and tried to shake it off while heading towards the cafeteria. Right when he was about to turn a corner he felt someone shove him in the side right at the locker wall almost hitting his nose. He turned weakly around to be greeted by the small stature of Wilbert himself.

Wilbert looked up with his beady yellowish brown eyes, acne ridden face, and crooked teeth, not a pretty sight. Frogg being much taller than him might be able to go against him if it were just the two of them, if not for Wilbert's taller and stronger cronies who he ordered to do the dirty work instead. Frogg grimaced for what was about to happen yet again.

"So toad, what have you gotten for me today?" Wilbert sneered.

"Please, just leave me alone!" Frogg begged in desperation.

"Okay, that's it. I was going to go easy on you today but now you've left me with no choice!" Wilbert said. Wilbert had been saying he was being nicer with Frogg but in reality it was quite the opposite. He seemed to be harsher to him in turn for picking on him less during the week. Wilbert then signaled one of his minions to pin Frogg up on the wall.

Before one could get the chance Frogg instinctively went running for the opposite end of the hallway. Even though he was now running away from the cafeteria he didn't want to be chased around there with everyone laughing at his expense, which had happened before. He rather just get beaten up without the humiliation from everyone watching him get beaten up.

During this time as he was looking back at the bullies running after him he didn't see where he was going and ended up crashing into someone else. This stopped the bullies from running and turned the attention of everyone in the hallway at the time. Time seemed to have frozen in place as everything went dark before Frogg finally opened his eyes and saw the person he was on top of. _Oh crud._

Meredith was unsure of what had just occurred in the last five seconds, she was walking to the cafeteria with her friends not paying attention to the commotion in the hallway until a thinned metal chinned man suddenly crashed into her, both of them ending up on the floor with the guy on top. Her brain was frazzled as she looked up onto the glasses wearing guy on top of her, undoubtedly as confused and dazed as she was. He had a long face with pale yellowish green skin and a pointy nose. His dark green hair stood on end and overall he had the appearance of a mad scientist. She could feel a strange pounding in her chest as the temperature seemed to have gotten hotter. He blinked at her before getting a very flushed face, as she too turned bright red.

"Uh…s-s-sorry!" He cried, getting up very quickly and seemed to be on the verge of fainting. "I w-wasn't l-looking and-sorry!" He said again as he ran again, not out of fear this time, but of embarrassment. Not a few seconds passed by until Wilbert and his group blew up in laughter as he disappeared down the hallway.

"Man! What, a, LOSER!" Wilbert said practically on the floor laughing. "This was way better than what I had in mind! Wait until EVERYONE hears about this!" His 'friends' then stopped laughing long before him leaving him the only one out of the loop. He finally got a handle on himself as he looked up at the tall figure of Blair in front of him with her hands on her hips. Meredith recognized that as Blair's infamous ticked look.

"I'd advise you to beat it, but I don't really care for worms like you so I'll let you make the decision yourself, just know I probably won't tolerate it." She said in a low and cold tone as well as giving him her infamous glare. Obviously Wilbert's cronies knew who she was and were slowly backing away, only Wilbert still somewhat held his ground to her.

"I-I am not scared of some girl, and nobody tells me what to do!" He said with only a brief moment of confidence. Blair then leaned down to his level where she was almost face to face with him.

"Well today's you're lucky day. I'm a girl, and I'm telling you what to do, so you better do it shrimpy." She said darkly. Meredith never thought she'd hear Blair use that tone with anyone again, she reasoned it has just been awhile since someone was brave/foolish enough to provoke her. Wilbert took an uneasy step back trying not to show that he was scared but his shaking legs were a dead give away.

"Uh, I just uh, remembered that they're serving mash potatoes today, yeah, and I really don't want to miss that. So I'll let you off the hook this once, so you better be grateful missy!" He said before running off with his cronies in a very cowardly fashion.

Once they were gone Blair turned to the rest of the onlookers and gave them a glare as well. "What're you all looking at? Show's over so keep moving!" That got everyone going but not without them whispering amongst themselves in the process. Blair went over to Meredith who had gotten up with the help of Sydney.

"Thanks for that Blair." Meredith said, admiring how Blair had quickly addressed the situation and stood up to those bullies.

"That was nothing, just dealing with these so called high schoolers. In my opinion though, it's three year olds trying to pretend trying to play dress up." Blair remarked, most likely referring to the bully's small size and immaturity.

"Yeah, I just wish that guy that ran off stuck around. Especially since he and Meredith here seemed to have quite the encounter!" Sydney excitedly said with a sly smile.

Meredith immediately turned a deep red at that. "Hey! What exactly are you implying?!" She said as embarrassment of the incident rushed back to her.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe something, maybe nothing!" Sydney sang obviously enjoying this. Blair too smiled thoughtfully at seeing Meredith's reaction to this, knowing full well how easily flustered her friend could get. "Why do you think I'm implying something anyways? Is there something that I should be implying about, hmmm?" Sydney continued teasingly.

"Yes, I mean no, I mean, stop with the mind games! It was just an accident and that's all!" Meredith said, ending the conversation. However a permanent blush remained on her face for the rest of the day.

"So who was this guy you ran into?" Dr. Frogg asked, getting strangely anxious again similar to when hearing about Demetres.

"Well, it's been so long since then that it's hard to recall all the details, I'm not positive but I think his name started with an A." She said nervously twisting a lock of her hair in her thinking. "Honestly, I actually tried to forget about this stuff a long time ago, and now that I'm telling you about it, some of it is starting to come back to me." Meredith answered, and truthfully it was helping that she was telling Dr. Frogg about it. Memories that seemed sketchy before were starting to reassemble. _Maybe I'll find out something that I haven't before_, she wondered.

Just then there was a knock on the door alerting them to Red Menace coming down along with Cue. "Hey boss, we just finished our preparations." Cue said to Frogg as Red went to observing the lab. "And you wanted us down here as soon as we were done, right?" Cue asked noticing Dr. Frogg and Meredith seemed to be in the middle of something.

"Oh yes, I just need to give you some extra supplies for the up coming battle." He said gathering some items from his desk and handing them to both Cue and Red. Meredith already had already gotten her supplies when she first came down to help with Dr. Frogg.

"These are for backup in case you have difficulty in your fight. Of course you probably won't need all of them but if worse comes to worse it won't hurt any less to have a backup plan. For you Red, you'll need to eat these strength boosters before we go against them, it'll be most essential for you since you're going against Big Bronze." He explained, having thought all of this and trying to not make it difficult to understand.

As their talk went on, Meredith was faintly reminded of a specific memory and soon in place of Frogg and the others stood three guys around their sizes. They were in an outside scenery, the sky was sunny and the trees were full of blossoms which indicated being somewhere around spring. She could just make out voices, some of it being laughter. The vision was too blurry to make anyone out but from the guys, specifically the smallest but averaged sized one, turned to smile in Meredith's direction. She then felt something touch her and before she knew it she was back in the lab. Her head swayed a bit before looking up to see Red had put his hand on her shoulder with a concerned look on his face.

"Hey Meredith, feeling okay? You looked kind of spaced out there." Red asked, getting worried since he remembered she was acting weird around lunch time as well. Cue and Frogg looked to them now, Cue concerned too with Frogg more knowing.

"Yeah, I'm fine…..but truthfully…" She looked up to Frogg, not sure if she should tell them her story as well. Frogg seemed to know what she was thinking and nodded with a reassuring smile. Meredith surprised at that, smiled a bit too, trying hard not to smile insanely big from her joy from receiving such a look from him. If it hadn't donned on Cue and Red, mainly Red, that she had feelings for Frogg before, they would surely have picked up something by now.

"Well, I was just telling Dr. Frogg of my high school years." She said in a much more cheery mood than before even if embarrassed by what she said. She wasn't sure with them supposed to be evil and all would think it'd be cool to hear high school stories.

"Oh! Dr. Frogg told me a story of his school years, to how he lost his hands and stuff." Red commented taking a seat on the ground already anticipating the story. "It was really something."

"Really? You lost your hands and chin during school?" Cue asked, also getting very interested. Cue had figured Doktor Frogg lost them on account of some science related experiment as Frogg was the notorious mad scientist villian he had heard about before deciding to go in search of him for work.

"Yeah, well, this is Meredith's story so let's listen to her first!" Dr. Frogg said, not wanting to get into that topic yet.

"Okay, I'm ready!" Red gleefully said clapping his hands earning a somewhat annoyed look from Frogg as Cue also took a seat to the floor in a joyful manner.

"Alright then, I think I'll just start from a point that hopefully everyone can get caught up in. Dr. Frogg can fill you in on some parts if you don't understand." Meredith said, feeling a lot like someone at story time in school with everyone in a circle listening to what you had to say. All of her favorite people were here too so she was already beginning to enjoy this. "So, from where I left off…"

Meredith hung her head down in the cold autumn air. She unfortunately had to walk home from school in this weather since she didn't live too far away from there, which was also unfortunate. _Who'd want to live right next to their school if they had a choice? _Of course she didn't have a choice in the matter but still, this was one of those moments where she didn't like it.

She thought back to that day and of her encounter with that student, she never seen anyone like him before. It was like meeting a character from a comic book in full blown real life. He was nothing like all the other guys at school; he really stood out from the crowd, to her in a good way. She never really had any classes with him but occasionally she saw him in the hallway, but even then it looked like he felt out of place or just, lonely.

From the start of high school she always had the same lunch as him and recognized his face, but he always sat alone at some abandoned table or on some cases not even come to lunch. She would have assumed he got sick or wasn't at school that day if she didn't see him in the hallway afterwards going back to class. Meredith never mentioned this to her friends since she barely knew him, and partly because she was afraid they'd disapprove of him like everyone else seemed to.

Even so, she never thought badly of him in any way, and even made a few attempts to talk to him, but could never bring herself to. Why, because she was extremely shy when it came to guys, especially with him for some particular reason. She usually just told herself that he would think of her as some annoying airhead girl, and he seemed too smart to bother with someone like her. She hated herself though for never getting the guts to at least say hi to him.

But now, she actually did make direct contact with him, maybe a little too literally. She never imagined she'd see him up close like that, and it made her nerves do back flips from the mere thought of that flashback. Unfortunately he appeared to not have been thrilled with the experience, and he most likely would never want to see her again after that embarrassing incident. Meredith slumped as that realization donned on her.

_Great! Maybe it would've been better if we never crashed into each other at all, then at least he wouldn't think I was some weirdo and instead not even notice I exist like before! _In frustration she kicked an empty soda can on the sidewalk. It rolled to the side and Meredith decided to have a little kick the can game to pass the time and to distract her thoughts. She kicked it again a bit harder and watched it land on the pavement in a nearby parking lot. She went over to continue her game but stopped as she saw the building that the parking lot was built around.

It was a tall tower-like office building littered with glass windows on every floor level. Its dark black wall stood out from the other duller appearances of the other buildings closer to the city. In the cloudy autumn afternoon it stood even more ominously than it would on a clear day. Meredith had passed this place before a few times, and each time it never failed to give her goose bumps. Something about this place didn't sit well with her, the air around there always seemed thicker than usual and she never saw anyone come in or out of that place. She usually went a different way to get to home, it was longer but it was better than passing that building everyday, she must've gotten sidetracked today and took the shorter way instead.

_Come on Meredith, get a hold of yourself, why do you always get so superstitious? This place isn't haunted or anything so quit freaking out about it,_ she told herself. She hesitantly walked onto the parking lot; oddly the same cars were always there too, in the same exact spots. She looked around, wondering what this place was even called. Not once has she seen a sign or anything saying the name or even the job occupation that was done in there. Meredith gave up the futile search and continued her walk, more calmly since she was assured that even though this place was creepy, nothing out of the ordinary ever happened here.

Unfortunately that was the worst thought to have had at that moment because that's when her life truly changed forever. Right then and there, a crash was heard above and Meredith turned around to witness something jumping out of one of the top windows of the building. Whatever it was fell to the ground in front of the entrance of the building, not a far distance from Meredith. She couldn't move a muscle even with her mind screaming at her to run as she saw the creature stand up from its hunched over position, without a scratch on it.

It was unlike anything Meredith had ever seen before, not of this world kind of thing. The creature was all black, as if it were a shadow come to life, its arms and legs long, skinny, and lanky as it seemed to drag those parts. Its hands and feet were abnormally big with long skinny sharp fingers and three long sharp toes on its feet. What perhaps stood out the most were the two long horned tentacle things on top of the creatures' head. They seemed to twitch and it immediately turned around to face her, the horns apparently being its ears.

It stared at her with what she took as very blank white eyes that unlike the rest of its appearance spoke non-threatening. In fact, they looked almost scared and worried, for it was frantically glancing around as if to see if she was the only one there. Meredith didn't know how to react or what to do. She didn't scream or run like a normal person would probably do at this moment, but just stood there in shock, unable to move.

It was only a second later that an alarm sounded from the inside of the building which caught the creature's attention as it looked back up to the window it came through. Before Meredith could also get a look as well, the creature suddenly raced towards her at a very amazing speed. The moment went by too fast for her to do anything about it, and she felt the breath taken right out of her as the creature collided into her. Everything went black as she fell backwards, slipping into unconsciousness before even reaching the ground.


	4. Chapter 4

Frogg had never felt so stupid in his life, and considering the fact he was one of the smartest kids in school, preferably an evil genius, that was saying something. He could barely concentrate on work or anything else the rest of that day. He looked out the window as he sat alone on the school bus ride home, everyone ignoring him and him ignoring everyone else. All the usual loud yells and constant talking were droned out as Frogg let out an exasperated sigh.

_How could I be so lame? _He thought. _I fell on top of a girl, babbled like an idiot, and then ran away like some cockroach! No wonder I'm such a loser. _He turned around, slumping back to his seat and stared down at his lap, his claws joined together. _I mean, if that wasn't bad enough, she probably thinks I'm some freaky robot weirdo. What girl would ever be interested in a guy with a metal chin and claws? No girl that's who._ He closed his eyes and sighed again at the depressing thought.

The whole thing was so embarrassing that he just wished it never happened in the first place, almost. He had (sadly) never been that close with a girl, the closest he got was just sitting next to one in class. Girls usually avoided him all together, him being known as the German loser clawed kid and all. But now that he (accidentally of course) came into contact with a girl on such close measures it's as if a whole new world of opportunities was opened up for him, _and to think that I ruined it all so quickly…_

"AAARGH! I hate myself!" He said aloud, placing both of his claws against his head in frustration. He opened one of his eyes to see that everyone was looking at him, his outburst catching the attention of everyone on the bus including the annoyed bus driver. "Ehhh…heh…."was all he could say and he quickly put his claws back down in his lap. Luckily the bus stopped at a stop right then and he immediately rushed for the door to get off.

He tripped on the last step down but didn't mind as he was now off the bus and gave out another relieved sigh as he walked away with the bus leaving. It was there he realized that this was the wrong stop, seeing the unfamiliar surroundings that he didn't recognize as his neighborhood.  
"W-Wait! Stop!" He turned back around hoping to catch the bus only to watch it disappear down the street. It would be pointless to try to catch it now and he didn't want to look like a fool for the third time that day, at least on purpose. "No more taking the school bus." He decided as he walked down the sidewalk keeping an eye out for anything that could tell him where he was. Only a couple of inactive drug stores accompanied with a bit of forest wilderness were all that were around. He took to walking straight down the side of the road towards the bus's direction figuring that by taking the bus's original route he'll find his way home sooner or later.

It was a quiet walk with no cars or people bustling about and he found it was a nice change of pace to that of the usual noise he had to deal with in school. This led his mind to wander which unsurprisingly couldn't help drifting back to that girl he crashed into that day. Something about her was familiar unlike his current location, and for the life of him he couldn't understand why since the only girls he ever contacted with were his mother and sister, but mostly with the former. _I doubt she was one of the neighborhood girls I knew when I still lived in Europe, she seems nice enough though… _

It suddenly came to him, she's in the same lunch as him, and she also usually sat at a table not too far from the deserted table he sat at. He never really had her in a class before, likely due to the fact he took much harder classes than what average kids were required. Why he probably even remembered her at all was that she never mocked him or gave him dirty looks or anything. He then considered that she might just be one of those quiet girls that were polite enough just to ignore him. After all, whenever he looked at her, she'd always look the other way.

_I must've looked like a total fool to her, yet… _He closed his eyes as he remembered looking down at her, her bangs were out of her face for once and he could see her big brown eyes that at that moment he could swear looked red. There was so much inside them, not at all what he was expecting. Not that he knew what to expect, but right there and then when he could finally see her face in full view, not with her looking away or with bangs hiding her face completely, she looked-

A police car rushed by snapping Frogg out of his thoughts involuntary making him jump. Once he saw the car go past him he hadn't realized he was holding back his breathe. He tensed up again as he saw even more police cars come around the corner following the path of the first car. They all went down the street and turned into a parking lot down the road. This peaked Frogg's curiosity for he didn't see a road accident of any kind and the area was so desolate that it would be hard not to see anything out of the usual taking place. He rushed up to peek around the corner and saw the building they were parking at.

Shadow Tech. Corp, the famous company of military technology and scientific advancements, and Frogg only held admiration for them. If he could ever get a job there as a scientist, it was a sure way to being recognized and becoming an evil villain to be reckoned with. Unfortunately they were only known for good deeds like working with the military against evil, but Frogg could certainly find a way to work around that to his own benefit.

He went down the street until he was in front of the building, police cars blocking the entryway. He crept on over supposedly unseen until he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see a burly policeman with a bushy brown moustache glaring down at him in all adult superiority.

"Where do ya think you're going kid?" He said with a stern tone, it probably wasn't an assent for Frogg that he had a suspicious appearance, having claws and a mad scientist look and all. It tended to get a lot of raised eyebrows sort to speak.

"Well…I…uhh-"

"This ain't any of your concern so beat it punk!" He said pushing Frogg away rather roughly with Frogg stumbling a bit. Frogg gave an annoyed glance back seeing the policeman laughing along with some of his co-workers. _Whoever said good guys were supposedly nice had lived in a different century,_ thought Frogg. Lately it seemed that it didn't matter if you were good or evil, you could still be a jerk either way.

It was a strange thing, good and evil. _Were you evil just because you weren't interested in what was called good, or were you good because you hate and discriminate those that weren't of the same crowd?_ Truthfully he knew what makes good and evil but he had lived long enough to know the world wasn't painted black and white, there's many shades that exist in between. He can understand why someone being evil was someone who didn't care for anyone except for their own desires, but were you still considered bad if you cared about others besides yourself? And were you really good if only help those that were like you and punish those that you feel threatened by?

Frogg shook his head at these thoughts, there never seemed to be a clear answer and he might as well just accept things as they are. People will always presume him as bad just because he was different and liked evil. Not that he's been the only one accused as he has witnessed such moments from his parents. He never thought of his parents as bad people even though what they did might be considered bad. But he still loved them anyways because they loved and cared for him where as many people turn away from him on sight. He was inspired to be an evil villain like his parents, but that didn't mean he wanted to be treated as a reject and be alone for the rest of his life.

He then thought back to Reggie, a big guy with red hair in the same grade as him as well as the only friendship he ever had, and it only lasted about three weeks. Reggie aspired to be a superhero and since both their goals conflicted each other Frogg decided to end their friendship in order to avoid such problems in the future. Truthfully that decision was rather hasty on his part and Frogg did regret ending it so soon, especially since right after was when Wilbert and his gang chased him and he ran into a pole thereby breaking his chin. Frogg wondered if there was a way that a villain and superhero could be friends, it would certainly change a bit of the discrimination against villains, but he knew that thought was even more foolish thinking and went on with his current situation.

He still wanted to know what was going on and proceeded to sneak around the back gate fence. The gates appeared slightly menacing with their pointed black arrows on the top that looked sharp enough to cut someone if they tried to climb over it. He didn't have the faintest idea why a fence needed to be put around seeing as this wasn't a main building of operations for Shadow Tech. Corp, but presumed it was built there long ago for security purposes.

He peeked through the fence and saw the parking lot littered with police cars around the building. At first nothing struck him out of the ordinary until he spotted a broken window on one of the top floors of the building. He then noticed many policemen standing around a tall man wearing a long black coat, seeming to be much younger and was probably answering questions for them.

Frogg went in for a closer look easily sliding through the fence, the posts naturally far apart and him being naturally thin made it an easy task. Sometimes he was glad to have his thin scrawny flexible body, but only for small instances such as this. He made his way behind some bushes which hid him very well from view, his tall spiky green hair blending in. He could faintly hear the conversation taking place between the policemen and the younger man in the middle, who Frogg could see was actually about his age, maybe a bit older. Frogg strained to listen as he unknowingly brought the attention of something nearby.

"This is the third time we've gotten a call about this place in the last two months." said what looked like to be the chief policeman seeing as he wore a more professional getup. "Is there a problem we should know about?"

"As I have said, it's only some random incidents we keep having, a chair was accidentally pushed and broke through the window, nothing the authorities need to be concerned about. Someone must've panicked and called the police." responded the young man in a cool, calm, collected manner. To prove his point, Frogg saw the remains of a chair in front of the building entrance right under where the broken window was.

"Well whatever these incidents are, it's getting to be a hassle." commented the chief.

"Maybe we should do an investigation." suggested another scrawnier policeman.

"Oh no, that won't be necessary. We do not want to make a fuss about this with all the employees working here. The last thing we need is to cause more of an uproar than we already have." The young man said eyeing the new policeman.

"Don't pay him any mind, he's the rookie. We don't do investigations on furniture braking windows and such; 'specially since this is Shadow Tech. Corp we're talking about." The chief said giving an irritated look to the rookie who shrank back in embarrassment. "It would take a LOT more than that to make us issue an investigation on Shadow Tech."

"O-Of course." The young man replied. As they talked on, Frogg decided to go back seeing as he found out what all the fuss was about, only to bump into something behind him. He put a claw back touching whatever was behind him and slowly turned his head around to see a giant of a man looming over him, even bigger than Reggie himself. Frogg shook all over in terror, the man was heavily clothed as he could not see his face except two glowing orange eyes which he was unnerving nonetheless.

"Um…uh…y-you see…I w-was just l-looking a-a-around a-and-" Frogg didn't get to finish his incoherent rambling as the man tugged him by the back of his shirt effortlessly toward the building. The policemen looked over wondering where the yelling was coming from and watched as the giant man literally tossed Frogg to the center of the group. Frogg remained in a somewhat fetal position not daring to stand up.

"I found him lurking in the bushes boss." The large man said ignoring the policemen as he pushed through, his attention solely on the younger man.

"Hey! It's that weird kid that was snooping around the front entrance!" said the same mustached policeman from before. "Don't worry, I'll personally throw him out 'a here!"

"There's no need for that gentlemen." answered the young man with his hand out signaling them to stop, surprising both the cops and Frogg who opened an eye. "He's a classmate of mine, August Frogg right?" The young man asked surprising Frogg even more.

"Uh, yes, t-that's right!" Frogg answered standing up. He had no idea at first what the man was talking about until he realized that he had seen this guy before at school. He never seemed to be around much, but whenever he was he always had a crowd of people around him, usually girls. However he knew him, nonetheless remembered his name, Frogg had no idea. _This guy seems way too popular to even know I exist_!

"Alright then, I guess if there's no problem we'll just be going then. You take care Mr. Spyres." The chief policeman said as he and the rest of the policemen were starting to depart. The policeman with the mustache held a longer suspicious glare at Frogg before he too went on his way.

"Phew!" Frogg said sighing with relief after all the policemen were gone before noticing the huge intimidating clothed man and got extremely nervous again. The giant was motionless, not once inching out of his position. Frogg would've assumed he was a statue if he didn't know otherwise.

"Don't worry about him; he's one of my bodyguards. He won't do anything to you unless I tell him so." assured the now named Mr. Spyres.

"O-Okay, I think…" Frogg said unsurely. _Mr. Spyres…wait a minute!_ Frogg thought before bursting out, "Mr. Spyres? THE Mr. Spyres? Owner of Shadow Tech. Corp Mr. Spyres?"

"Actually, that title belongs to my father. I'm his son Demetres Spyres, I'll be next in line to take over." He answered with a modest grin.

"Wow, and to think all this time we've been going to the same school?"

"Yeah, I guess it does sound pretty unbelievable doesn't it? I'm usually off at company meetings, getting prepared to take over and whatnot, but I wouldn't want to miss my last year of high school." Demetres said. Frogg must've gave him a disbelieving look for he added, "Who wouldn't want to send their last year of school off being with their friends before graduation?" He didn't miss the silent 'hmph' from Frogg as pain and disdain flitted through his eyes.

"I don't know about that, high school isn't all that great." Frogg commented facing away from Demetres. "I mean if I were you, I'd be out of there already working on the company. Being in charge of a great company like that would be the way better spent than staying another year at school, making new inventions and scientific discoveries, and really using that potential to make a name for yourself in the world! The sooner you get to accomplish things the better you know what I mean?" Frogg said looking over at Demetres then realized what he said. "AH! Sorry! I got kind of carried away there, I didn't mean to-"

"No, don't apologize, I get where you're coming from. Why I guess it's not that simple for me is that I still need the education, you on the other hand could probably finish high school already being as smart as you are."

"R-Really? You think I'm smart?" Frogg asked dumbfounded at what he had just heard or thought he heard.

"Of course! You are one of the top students at the school, I should know, I'm part of the student council there." Demetres paused for a second and looked into the sky for a moment. "You know, the rest of the kids don't give you that much credit, you really deserve to be treated better than that." If he didn't have Frogg's attention before he immediately had it all now. "You're pretty intuitive and you seem to know a lot about Shadow Tech." Demetres turns back to Frogg. "Why don't I give you a tour of the place, but not today, we can schedule it some other time when things have calmed down a bit around here."

At first Frogg stood there barely breathing and he had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming, he wasn't and the pinch hurt a lot more than he expected since this was coming from claws. "YES! Uh, I mean, sure, why not." He said trying not to sound overly excited though he was just as thrilled in the inside.

They soon set up a date for the next Friday, one week after tomorrow. "Just come over here right after school and we can get started on the tour." Demetres said.

"Great! I know you've probably figured out by now, but it'd be a dream come true if I could work as a scientist for Shadow Tech. Corp. I at least want to try to apply for an internship or something. I doubt that they will hire teenagers but I've got a lot of ideas and-"

"Whoa, slow down August, I get it." Demetres said jokingly. "Don't fret, I'd be happy to hear some of your ideas and I'm pretty sure you've got as good of a chance as anyone for a job." Frogg felt like jumping for joy but suppressed the feeling. "We can discuss more on that on the tour. By the way, do you need a ride home or…"

In the mid-thought of whether a victory shout would be inappropriate or not that comment reminded Frogg of his first predicament, but in no way did he want to look bad now in case it might ruin his newfound good luck. "Nope, I'm fine! I know where Shadow Tech. is, which is here, but like in the city, so I can find a way home no problem!" He answered somewhat flustered. Frogg then looked at his watch and saw that it was almost five, and the bus dropped him usually around four and that was at the right bus stop. He knew his parents were probably wondering where the heck he was, their son not known to be disobedient despite them having jobs in the line of evil.

"Sorry but I got to get going! Thanks for everything! You don't know how much this means to me!" Frogg said as he hastily rushed off. When he was sure that he was well away from the building, Frogg jumped in the air triumphantly and yelled, "Yahooo!" no longer able to contain his excitement.

_I can't believe this! I'm on my way to landing a job there and everything!_ Frogg thought as he began running. Not sure if he was going the right direction to home, but surely his parents will be just as amazed as him once he tells them what had happened to him today. Frogg looked up to the setting evening sun and smiled at the sight. _Finally, things are starting to look up for me! _

Frogg was almost out of sight as Demetres narrowed his eyes and smirked, "Heh, what a gullible little idiot." He turned around and entered his building with his guard following right behind him. The doors slid open to reveal a long dark empty hallway where they walked in silence until Demetres said with a new darker demeanor, "So, I'd take it that you didn't find the shadow creature?"

"Unfortunately, we all searched the grounds but there's no trace of it anywhere." the guard responded.

"It couldn't have gone far on it's own with the barrier stopping it from using its abilities. It had to have escaped in a different way, not from running out with its appearance being as it is, if so, there'd be attention and we'd have secured it." He stopped in mid-stride. "The only other possibility is if…"

"It decided to get a host." Demetres didn't even have to look up at the ceiling to tell who the new voice belonged to. Standing upside down on the ceiling, a slim femine figure wearing a joker-like costume smirked at the irritated look on Demetres. "Too bad for you I guess."

"I really am in no mood for this Nyx. If you have no news then I suggest you leave and come back when you have some." Demetres said annoyed.

"Humph. That is no way to treat a lady, especially since I do have news." She said before dropping down in a very acrobatic manner beside him, landing perfectly on her high-heeled boots. "You're just lucky I'm such a forgiving person."

"Get to the point, the news?" He said getting impatient.

"Fine. Sources have described that around the same time that our shadow creature escaped; a girl about high school age was seen in the vicinity, not long after she was gone. There isn't much more details to go on than that." She explained. "Though I think it's a safe bet that she's the supposed host."

"Whoever she is, she must've survived the first step in order for her to be able to still move about. In that case, we'll need to find out who she is and keep a close eye on her." Demetres started walking off leaving the other two behind. A nasty grin formed on his face as he added "After all, she could very well be my best experiment yet."


	5. Chapter 5

Darkness filled the ominously quiet laboratory; machines of all sizes were laid about, each one more menacing than the last. Only one object stood out from the others, a giant glass orb that greatly resembled a giant light bulb standing upright. At first glance, it appeared empty until upon further inspection a dark shape was inside of the orb, blending in with the dark surroundings.

All was silent until the soft sound of footsteps from outside the room alerted the creature within the orb, its long ear twitching as it uncurled from its spot. Its big white eyes were visible, piercing the darkness in the room, and it narrowed them as the approaching sound came closer. In just a few seconds some small florescent lights went on in the room, not completely lighting the place up, but making it visible enough to see the creature clearly.

It was a demonic shadow-like figure, certainly not native to this world. Its long gangly arms and legs hung from the body while its rather long tentacle-like ears reached the top of the orb. It bent up into a sitting position, knowing who was coming and had a look of scorn plastered onto its face. It undoubtedly would look terrifying to anyone who witnessed it, but that hardly fazed the visitor who walked up to it.

"I see you're up, good, since it's time for your daily testing." the mysterious figure said in a low and eerie tone. "Maybe for once you'll decide to cooperate? It'll be that much less stressful for you and me if you didn't put up such a fight every time." The shadow creature only gave an even more threatening glare before striking the glass with one of its naturally large sharp claw-like hands, but to no avail as not even a scratch was made.

"I suppose that's a no. Suit yourself; we'll just do this the hard but much more entertaining way." He smirked as the creature once again made another futile attack against the glass, harder than the last one but receiving the same results.

The darkness hid the figure's features; only the outline of him suggested a tall man who wore a long unique cloak, it having the shoulder ends pointed up along with a cape-like effect at the bottom of the suit. His hands were tucked behind his back, a very usual position for him the creature knew and it was never a good sign. Most notably overall he gave off a very sinister vibe that even the shadow creature found remarkably distasteful. It had a way of sensing a person's aura, and nothing this man emanated was ever good, though it didn't need to know his aura to figure that out.

"Since you won't show me obedience on your own, you leave me with the option of trying to force it out from you instead." He replied as he pulled out a small remote out behind him, it having a small knob in the center. The creature eye's widened at it, obviously knowing what was going to come next but not giving in to the figure any.

"Remember you brought this upon yourself…" He turned the knob slowly to the right and electrical sparks began to fill the orb, zapping the creature painfully. It hunched over and winced, but managed to hold its death glare at the figure. "…so until I get what I want from you…" he continued turning the knob more and the sparks got that much worse, "…you'll never be at peace." Soon the bolts got so large and violent that they completely filled the orb, electrocuting the creature in entirety. The creature couldn't take it anymore and screeched in an otherworldly howl unable to withstand the pain.

---

Meredith shot her eyes wide open and stood up, panting heavily as she stared down at what appeared to be her bed. She glanced around to see her normal bedroom, dark pink being the theme. In the corner stood her desk against the wall covered with messes of papers and coloring utensils. Along with her closet and laundry basket, everything seemed to be perfectly normal. She noticed her backpack on the floor and finally started processing the recent events that had happened to her.

She remembered walking home from school and going by that creepy building on the way. That's when that shadow thing jumped out of a window and came down unscathed along with the sound of alarm ringing inside the place. Next thing she knew, that creature ran into her then…nothing. What…what happened?

"Honey, you're awake!" Meredith jerked around to see her mother standing at the doorway, looking highly relieved and concerned at the same time. She rushed over to Meredith's bed and put a hand on Meredith's forehead. "Oh gosh, you're sweating like crazy; you might be getting a fever! Hold on, I'll get a thermometer."

"W-Wait, mom-" Meredith tried to say as her mom raced out. Meredith heaved a sigh and looked across her bed at the dresser which held a mirror. Meredith could see she did look like a wreck, her skin paler than usual to a near white, and her red eyes looked small and bloodshot. After that dream she had though, she couldn't help but wonder why she didn't look worse.

It all looked so realistic, and it's as if she could feel that creature's pain with each shock. But if that was a dream, maybe the whole encounter with the creature was a dream too? She soon shook that theory off, since if that was the case it wouldn't explain why her whole body felt sore and how she had a searing headache.

Her mom came back in with a thermometer as well as a wash cloth. "Okay, just open your mouth." Meredith did so reluctantly and waited a while for her mom to finish the procedure. "It appears it's high but not fever high. That's a relief, but just to be sure you should rest longer." She said placing the wash cloth on Meredith's forehead. "It was a good thing you woke up, if you hadn't I might've had to call for an ambulance. You were lying in front of the house passed out for who knows how long."

This brought up Meredith's attention. "In front of the house?! How'd I get here?! Last time I checked I was at…that…" Meredith paused seeing her mom's confused expression, clearly not sure what she was talking about. "Never mind…"

"What's the matter? Is something wrong?" She said with worry apparent in her voice. Meredith wasn't too sure how to make sense of it all herself, but if she could barely understand this, how could she expect anyone else to? She knew her mom was a bit of a worrywart, it's where she got it from, so saying that a shadow monster attacked her was not going to help her case. If anything, her mom might start to think that she's going crazy and request her to go see a therapist.

"Really, it's nothing. I've got a headache is all." Meredith said placing a hand on her wash clothed forehead. That part is true anyways, she thought.

"Well, as I've said before, get some rest. There's only one more day of school left for the week so that ought to cheer you up!" her mom said as she went for the door. "Call me if you need anything." and with that closed the door.

Meredith slumped back into bed with a loud plop. She was exhausted, not sure why since all she recalled doing besides walking home was fall down into unconsciousness. It was as if all the energy had been drained out of her from that experience, and that strange dream afterwards certainly didn't help.

She turned her head towards the mirror, wishing her reflection didn't show such a pathetic girl staring back at her. First that incident with that guy who probably never wants to see me again, and then a paranormal creature attack! Why did I just stand there and do nothing, on both occasions?! Blair was the one to stand up to those bullies while I didn't do anything at all, and when that creature came at me, I did the same thing, nothing! I'm probably lucky to be alive! She turned over in her bed facing the wall, moaning before closing her eyes with one last thought, why am I such a coward?

At that time unknowingly to Meredith, her shadow appeared to have what could be described as two colorless eyes. They blinked, surveying the room and taking in this new different setting. The shadow then moved away from Meredith, crossing the wall, and went through the door.

---

Soon enough nighttime came by with Meredith finally getting up, having fully rested from her long sleep. Hunger and thirst gripped at her, the last time she ate anything was around lunch which she spent most of the time thinking about her run in with that guy. It was only thanks to those bizarre events that happened afterwards that got him off of her mind, not that she preferred that to thinking about him all day.

Ugh, I need some milk, she thought walking down the hallway in no mood to dwell on anything. She passed her mother's bedroom; the door shut likely indicating she went to sleep. Meredith was an only child living with her mom and dad. Her dad was a business man who was usually out of town so Meredith was accustomed to it being just her and her mom at home.

It was until Meredith had entered the living room that she heard some strange noises coming from the kitchen. She would've figured it was her mom if the lights had been turned on, but they weren't. Panic swept over Meredith as a thought occurred to her, robbers! She always wondered if she'd ever have to go through something like this, not that she hoped it'd actually happen. She for one has had enough excitement for one day. Wait, does that mean I'm going to just stand by and watch again?

She froze as a loud clunk was heard as if something had been dropped. Meredith slowly crept back to the hallway, searching for the closet door without turning on the lights. She found it effortlessly and turned the knob gently, not wanting to take any chances of being heard. Inside lied a vacuum cleaner, a mop, two fly swatters, and two brooms. Meredith chose to take a broom, it being the most effective weapon for she didn't want to go in unarmed. She wasn't the most skilled fighter with defending herself so one was about all she could take and handle.

She made her way stealthily back to the living room, noises still occurring in the kitchen indicating the intruder hadn't left. She gripped the broom tightly as she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do. Okay, this is it. No more holding back, no more being helpless. No, no more!

She got by the kitchen door and swiftly switched on the lights and immediately swung her broom at the dark figure sitting on the floor. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she recognized who the figure was, but unable to stop herself, she hit the broom right on top of its head. She stood still, broom in hand as she stared in silence at the shadow creature she had encountered earlier. The creature looked rather annoyed, wincing a bit from the sudden attack, but became wide-eyed as it saw Meredith standing there in shock. Meredith released her grip on the broom, dropping to the floor with a clatter.

"Y-Y-You…" She managed out, fear in the edge of her voice. The creature seeing her starting to panic, waved its hands in front of it with an alarmed look in its eyes, as if a signal for her to stop. It didn't calm down Meredith any, "Y-You're t-t-that…" The shadow creature's look increasingly grew more worrisome as it placed a hand on its head in an 'oh great' manner. "Y-You're that monster! MOM-" The creature in its quick thinking, stood up and covered her mouth with one of its abnormally big hands, stopping her from screaming.

This however only made Meredith even more frantic, yelling and screaming with all her might only for them to become drowned out muffles. The creature too didn't seem to be having a good time, it looking very frustrated, having a difficult time trying to figure out how to assess the situation. A sharp pain coursed through its hand as it saw Meredith biting into it. It withdrew its hand instantly and Meredith jumped back, now appearing more angry than scared. She panted before glaring back at the creature, "Why are you here?! What do you want with me?!!"

It was a standstill at first, neither of them saying or doing anything besides staring each other down. The creature didn't reply, being mad at having its hand bitten, but softened its gaze as it seemed to dwell on the situation. It relaxed a bit, getting out of its enraged stance and turned its head to the floor, directing her attention towards it.

She finally noticed the empty containers and boxes of food littering the kitchen floor. Confusion swept over her as she calmed, looking back to the creature who only stared back at her, not acting as hostile as before. Unlike its appearance, it wasn't being threateningly or dangerously of any kind, at least in an unreasonable way as she had bitten it, on contrary it seemed to be very vulnerable right now. It only stood there with a very defeated look in its eyes, waiting for what might be more verbal punishment. At that moment she realized that maybe there was more to this creature than meets the eye, just maybe.

"Did you eat all of that food?" She asked in a much calmer tone, receiving a surprised look from the creature. It nodded, Meredith getting a surprised look of her own, seeing as it seemed to understand her. She thought to herself a moment before asking, "Just, what are you exactly?"

The creature somewhat brightened up at that, knowing how to answer that question. It backed up to the wall, and then seemingly went into it, its form now visible on the wall in the appearance of a shadow. Only its eyes told her otherwise that it wasn't a real shadow. "I see, so you really are a shadow creature huh?" She said almost laughing at not assuming the obvious. "I guess that explains a lot." The creature stepped out from the wall, resuming its regular form again. She then grew more serious as she asked, "So what are you even doing here besides getting something to eat?" deciding to ask how it can even eat later.

It scratched its head for a moment, puzzled how to go about this question. It snapped a finger, making Meredith flinch back a little, and changed back to a shadow this time on the floor. It made its way to Meredith's shadow and seeped into it, perfectly disguising itself as her shadow. She opened her mouth in surprise, starting to finally connect the dots on what had happened before.

"When you ran at me, you became sort of …connected to me, didn't you?" The creature only lowered its eyes in response, a troubled look formed on its face. She then noticed her feet were turning black, a dark tint rising to her legs, the same kind of black aura that the shadow creature was made of. Her hands started going through the same transformation, and she increasingly grew frightened at this new turn of events. What's going on?! What's happening to me?!

The odd sensation stopped earlier than Meredith had thought. She looked back down at her newly formed shadow hands, just like that of the shadow creature. By then she noticed her reflection from the screen door and for the first time saw the shadow form of herself.

Her first response was to freak out at this, but couldn't get the chance as a vision flashed in her head. It showed a scene of her from earlier that day lying down on the pavement after being knocked down by the creature. The same transformation took place on her, her looking exactly the same as she did now.

She got up uneasily, looking at herself as if not very accustomed to her own body for some reason. Her now longer pointed ears twitched to a new sound aside from the ongoing ringing of the alarm inside the building, the sound resembling the pounding of footsteps, and a lot to be exact. She swiftly turned away, running at an incredible pace towards the entrance of the parking lot, glancing at the fences before doing so.

Putting as much distance as she could from that place, exhaustion began taking over from the stress of being in that form. She quickly made her way to her house, able to turn into a shadow now by passing through walls and obstacles making it that much quicker. Once in front of Meredith's house, the shadow form instantly vanished, and Meredith returned to her normal self. As though she had never awoken from unconsciousness, she dropped to the ground and laid there until a few moments later some neighbors came by and soon enough her mom rushed out trying to wake her up.

The vision ended which Meredith found herself panting again, this time on the floor. She glanced up to see the shadow creature was standing up in front of her and took notice that she no longer was in that shadow form either, having gone back to normal. It took a few seconds to get her thoughts together, but when she did, she stood upright and grabbed the creature's throat with renewed vigor.

"YOU TOOK CONTROL OF ME DIDN'T YOU?!" she yelled positively angry, stating it as fact more than asking if that were true. There was no other explanation for what she just witnessed and how she couldn't remember any of those following events. She had to have been unconscious the whole time and the shadow somehow possessed her during that. To why she was so tired when she woke up, the transformation taking a lot of energy out of her, everything made sense now and she wasn't the least bit happy.

The creature for once looked a bit shaken and slightly intimidated by her, most likely due to her almost choking it. "I was unconscious so you decided to take me out for a spin, is that it?!" She only stopped and eased her grip when she heard her mom calling from the hallway.

"Meredith, why are you yelling? Don't you know what time it is?" her mom sounding tired yet irritated.

"Agh! She can't see you! Quick! Do that shadow trick of yours!" Meredith said, the creature only narrowing its eyes at her and looking down to her hand still around its throat. "Oh, sorry!" apologizing quickly as she released her hold on it. It went onto the floor, posing itself again as Meredith's shadow.

"We have neighbors you know who don't want to be waken up at eleven thirty at night and-" Her mom said coming into the kitchen only to stop at the sight of the mess on the floor. She only stared at it in disbelief and Meredith knew she had to act fast if she wanted to avoid getting scolded.

"I got really hungry when I woke up and I guess I sort of made a mess…" Meredith explained sheepishly.

"Sort of?!" Her mom asked in bewilderment still quite in shock, never having a mess of that magnitude in her house before. It also didn't help her mood that she had cleaned the kitchen floors that very day.

"I'm sorry for getting a bit careless…" She apologized briefly giving a glare at her shadow. "…and I know it's my fault so I'll clean it up. Believe me; it'll all be gone in the morning." Meredith exclaimed rushing her mom out of the kitchen. "I take full responsibility for this so you just go back and enjoy your sleep!"

"Okay, but don't overstress yourself, you did pass out after all." Her mother replied, even with being upset about the huge mess she still was more concerned about Meredith's well being.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" Meredith said waving her hand slightly. Her mom would've thought of Meredith's whole attitude being a little fishy, knowing how her daughter loathed doing chores such as cleaning. She merely shook it off as she was too tired to care and went back to her bedroom.

As soon as Meredith knew her mom was gone, she let out a sigh and glared at her shadow again, the creature shrugging guiltily before coming off the floor into its original form. "I hope you realize that you're cleaning up this mess as well." Meredith stated getting the broom off the floor and began sweeping. The creature glanced at her quizzically before scooping up some trash, a large amount as it enlarged its hands to do so. Meredith gaped at the sight before moving to get the trash can. The creature dumped the garbage into it, filling it up a great deal.

"You know, I still don't forgive you for controlling me before, and I still have more questions for you I want answered." She said eyeing the creature. It continued scooping more trash facing away from her. "But you did drop me off at my house, which I still don't get how you knew where it was, as well as help me avoid trouble with mom." Meredith continued, surprising the creature but it still choosing not to face her.

"It'll be a long night, so I'm sure you can redeem yourself more in that time." Meredith said as she dropped her load of trash into the can, filling it up to the brim. "We've got plenty of work ahead of us thanks to your pigging out-" She stopped and widened her eyes as the creature took the trash can from her and looked at her with a sort of acknowledgment in its eyes.

Before it went outside to take out the trash, Meredith hesitantly asked, "First off I got to know, how can you eat?" The creature did not expect a simple question like that but decided to answer her nonetheless. It bent down to pick up a cookie that was on the floor and held it to where its mouth would be located, the cookie then disappearing into it as though a vacuum had absorbed it. "Huh, cool."


	6. Chapter 6

"Is that how you got your powers?" Meredith looked up startled at the sudden question. She had been so focused into telling her story she almost didn't hear the question. Dr. Frogg was the one who asked this for even though he had not actually been able to see her powers yet, he had a feeling the whole shadow creature topic was in relation to that.

"Yes and no, it is where they are originated." responded Meredith, calming down while giving off a more relaxed expression.

"How so?" Cue asked still sitting in the same spot on the floor with his legs crossed. Meredith would've thought he'd be uncomfortable in that position for so long and at least move a little like Red Menace tended to do, though maybe that was a positive. Red would squirm and shift his position so much, likely from his excitement from the story that it was hard for him to sit still.

"Well, it'd be too complicated to explain it all now, but you'll get why later." Meredith answered, not sure if she should really get that far into the story, but telling about what had happened to her was finally relieving her a bit. She had no idea how good it felt to let this all out for all these years she's kept to herself.

In her mind however, she did have a growing worry, wondering if there was any way that she might be putting them in danger from merely telling these events to them. Especially if she dwelled deeper into her story, could the information possibly put them at risk if **he** does come looking for her? She shook it off as she told herself there was no way any of her past could interfere with their lives now, at least she hoped so.

She grimaced, knowing the fact does remain that he is still out there, and as much as she'd like to take care of him and get it over with, that was basically impossible. At her current level now, she would barely last five minutes in a fight with the guy, not without losing control on her powers and even then she'd probably still lose. No, as far as he knows I'm dead and there's no way he'd know where to find me, and if by chance he does, it'll be too late for him by then.

When she first met up with Dr. Frogg and Cue, she had been taking a walk and happened to witness the blowing up of the Metrotown-Starville Suspension Bridge. Followed by Dr. Frogg falling on top of her, whom she felt a bit of de-ja-vu from, and Cue dangling from a rope, she learned that they were the ones responsible for the destruction of the bridge. She was amazed at the damage they could do, and so offered to join, hoping this was finally her chance to get powerful enough to take her ex-master down.

She realized early that Dr. Frogg's ambition was to in fact take over the world, unfortunately so was her ex-master's desire. Meredith knew that if by some chance that they got closer to that goal, they'd be confronted by her ex-master and all chaos would ensue. She could only hope that they'd either have to become too powerful by that time for anyone to oppose them, or they'd have to remain as obscurity villains, which neither possibility seemed likely. Dr. Frogg was determined to make a name for himself and that would bring attention. They'd get recognition, but what comes with that are enemies.

Sure there were the good guys, the military and superheroes, but opposing villains were that much worse. They had no heart of leaving anyone alive or by merely throwing them in jail for the rest of their lives. It'd be a fight for the throne in a matter of speaking, and from the wannabe villains around here that Meredith had seen and heard of, none of them could ever compare to her ex-master. He was the absolute worst attention Dr. Frogg could bring, period.

There is that Skullossus guy that sounds like a somewhat decent bad guy to her, but in no way was he as cruel and devious as her ex-master. Unlike Skullossus, her ex-master was intelligent and did not care about being a famous villain and getting his own syrup brand and so on. He preferred to not be so blatant about his evil appearance and be out of public's eye, doing his evil designs inconspicuously. It would only be a matter of time until he does decide to make his intentions known to the world, and Meredith feared that it will come at all too soon and will somehow be conflicted with Frogg's plans.

"So, what happens next?!" Red Menace asked eagerly and startling Meredith out of her thoughts again.

"Uh, oh yeah, right. The true chaos began the next day, my first day with Shadow, which I decided to just call him that…" She continued, glancing at Frogg from the corner of her eye and wondered if keeping this information was wrong and if telling him of these other figures would help him or not. What if he gets mad at me for keeping secrets from him, or what if he doesn't care about my ex-master at all and thinks I'm just being cowardly? She didn't know the answer and maybe it was better that way, but she still couldn't help wondering if Frogg really did know what he was getting himself into.

---

Meredith was exhausted in the morning, from staying up for almost the entire night cleaning up the kitchen with Shadow, it was no wonder her mom had a harder time than usual to get Meredith up and moving. The mess would've not taken that long to clean up especially with Shadow helping her if she didn't spend most of the time asking questions and getting very few answers.

It's not that the creature didn't have answers to them, just not sure how to communicate them to her. She realized on her own that Shadow somehow showed her its memories when becoming part of her in that shadow transformation. That was probably the best way of communicating to her on some issues, but it took a lot of energy out of her from that. Safe to say that if she really wanted to get to the bottom of things, she'd have to get better acquainted with the creature and being in that shadow form.

That was actually not that big of a problem since the creature seemed permanently attached to her, finding this out when it tried taking out the trash. She noticed the thin shadow strand connecting her shadow to the creatures' feet; being there the whole time and she either didn't notice or didn't think much of it as there were other things on her mind. The strand got shorter and shorter when the creature got farther away, but enlarged when it came back. It was then she knew they were somehow bound together.

That apparently was what the creature was aiming for when colliding with her so it could use her to escape from that place. For what the reason why it wanted to escape she didn't know, but she had a nagging feeling that she recalled something pertaining to that but she just couldn't place her finger on what it was. The only thing she was sure of was that the creature wasn't keen on telling her, it merely remaining silent with a dark expression when she asked.

"Meredith, I forgot to mention that I have a workshop meeting to go to so you need to take the bus to school today." Her mom said mildly as though this wasn't going to upset her.

"What?! You tell me this now when the bus comes in like ten minutes?!" Meredith wailed absolutely hating riding the bus. She had had enough of that during elementary school.

"Well, you much rather walk to school, that's up to you. Just know that you'll likely be late." Meredith frowned, realizing the truth in this. It was okay to walk home from school since they were close and she had all the time in the world to get there, but walking to school was not an option for it would take too long.

"Fine, just don't expect a grateful daughter when you get home." She hustled to the door with her backpack, struggling to tie her right shoe. She then saw two colorless eyes staring up at her from the floor and recognized the shadow creature, and suddenly remembered the current circumstances. "Oh no, you are not going to school with me!" she said forgetting her mom was nearby.

"Did you say something?" her mom asked not having heard her clearly.

"UH-nothing! This shoelace won't stay tied is all!" Meredith responded as she furiously tied her shoe once more. When she looked back to the floor, the eyes were gone and so she took that it left. The last thing she wanted was going to school with a shadow creature; so many things could go wrong she didn't even want to think about it. It would be better if Shadow stayed at home and out of sight, and with her mom at work it'd be all the safer. "Okay, I'm off, bye!" Meredith rushed out the door before anything else could be said or done.

---

Upon walking into English class she recalled the reason why she wasn't looking forward to class. Demetres was already at his seat and gave a sly grin much to her displeasure. She reluctantly took her seat in front of him, her stomach lurching as she prayed this class would go by didn't take long until she felt a tap on her back and turned around to see Demetres rather uncomfortably close. "Hey, remember me?" he said with Meredith giving him an annoyed side-glance.

"How could I not when all you did was bother me and try stealing my drawings? Seriously, it wouldn't hurt to actually have a conversation or something." she retorted back, not in the mood to have a repeat of yesterday.

"I only find you kind of interesting, that's all. You don't have to make me sound like the enemy." he said resting a hand on his cheek.

"As I recall it, I'm not the one who started this am I?" Meredith said just as the teacher came in to start class. She turned around in her seat but was stopped as Demetres leaned in really close over her shoulder.

"I guess if you put it that way-" Suddenly without any warning, he fell down from his seat face flat on the floor. Everyone turned to look their way, the teacher not looking very pleased with the interruption.

"Mr. Spyres, could you please get off the floor and back to your seat?" the teacher asked not amused unlike some of the other classmates who were snickering a bit.

"Yes sir." Demetres climbed back onto his seat, puzzled as to how he fell off in the first place. Meredith as well was confused until noticing a moving shadow on the wall next to her. She would've said something out loud but remembered she was in a classroom full of people so forced her mouth shut.

**GREAT!** And when I told that shadow to stay home! She angrily thought as she copied down the notes, her pencil almost punching through the paper. Her eyes scanned the room for anything suspicious or any moving shadows of the like, getting a very bad feeling about this. If it decided to reveal itself and someone else saw it, well, you get the idea.

Meanwhile Shadow was up to his own antics. It went under Demetres' desk, tying his shoelaces together. Once done, it stealthily went back in the floor and crawled up his desk, camouflaging as his papers' shadow, and ever so gently tipped his pencil off his desk. Demetres with an annoyed grunt went down to pick it up. Demetres had a soda bottle on his desk which Shadow used this time to shake up and slipped into obscurity before Demetres came back up. Only Meredith had noticed this and wanted to stop this without giving herself away.

"Um Demetres, I don't think that's a good-" She started to say but too late as Demetres opened the bottle resulting in it spraying soda all over him and his notes. The class went laughing as the teacher folded his arms. "…idea."

"Demetres, can you please get your things in order without interrupting class?"

"Yes Mr. Kinsley." Demetres said enjoying this less than the teacher did. He gave a suspicious glance at Meredith who turned around. So much for trying to help you, she thought.

The class eventually settled down and they all continued coping down the notes. Demetres had to get new paper since the soda ruined his already done work. He picked up his binder and proceeded to opening it, with Shadow acting again, closed it before he could get anything. Demetres grunts again, tries opening it again, only for it to close again.

It continues like this for awhile until the binder closes completely with Demetres trying to pry it open. Shadow decidedly releases its' hold and Demetres gets his paper out forcibly, causing it to rip. Not pleased, but uses the paper anyways. It's only until he almost gets done copying the notes a second time when Shadow tips his soda bottle, which still contained some soda in it, over his desk and ruins his notes yet again.

"That's it! I'm going to the restroom!" Demetres said which the teacher made no comment against. When Demetres got out of his seat and walked to the door, he soon tripped over his tied together shoelaces and landed face flat on the floor once again. The class blew up in laughter, all except Meredith though she would've if she didn't know what was really going on and felt partly responsible for it.

"Mr. Kinsley, I uh…also have to use the restroom!" Meredith said.

"Well sure, you just need a pass-" but Meredith was out of the door before he could finish. Demetres looked up at the fleeing Meredith, not sure how to make of all this, but swore he saw something on the wall move after her. Was that……nah, it couldn't be…but still…might want to keep a close eye on her just in case.

---

"Just what the heck was that all about?!" Meredith yelled at Shadow who suddenly wasn't looking all that thrilled now that it had to answer for what it did. They were both in the girl's restroom which Meredith checked to make sure was empty and then closed the doors so that nobody could hear. "Why are you even here?! Why didn't you stay at home?!"

The shadow creature looked down at the ground to where the shadow strand connecting its' feet to her feet was. "Yeah? So we're stuck together, I get…that…Oh no, don't tell me…" She slammed a hand on her face. "You have to go wherever I go, don't you…" Shadow shrugged as if saying 'that's the works'.

"That still doesn't excuse you from doing that!" She pointed out, trying to redeem herself for not realizing such a detail. "I mean, if you don't know already, you're not exactly normal around here. Don't you know what would happen if anyone sees you?! Trust me when I say they're not going to take it very well!" Shadow gave her a look clarifying that it didn't need to be told that.

"If you know then why parade yourself like that? Someone could've very well seen you and that'd be it for you and me! Just why did you do that to Demetres anyways? Sure I don't like him that much but still, what makes you think he deserves that? What'd he ever do to you?!" Right then Shadow actually looked quite angry as if she had just insulted it. Folding its' arms it disappeared back into her shadow.

"Hey! Come back here!" She inevitably gave up as for she was now yelling at her shadow on the floor. She leaned back against the restroom wall, placing a hand on her forehead and sighed. "Just when being a teenager in high school wasn't hard enough…"

---

Meredith silently ate her lunch wanting to forget of the earlier events. She sat beside her friends in the usual spots in the cafeteria, a not too empty stretched out table with only a few other students sitting near the end of it. Fortunately Shadow hadn't caused any more problems since English but hasn't shown up since their dispute in the girl's restroom. She started to wonder if maybe she was just a little hard on it but she couldn't excuse the fact it willingly risked getting seen only to get some kicks by playing pranks on Demetres. He wasn't worth ruining her whole life for; she didn't want to be known as the freak with the living shadow.

Meredith wanted to get her mind off of anything relating to the fact she had a shadow creature now wherever she went. She looked up to see that Sydney had just started another conversation of whether tomatoes were fruits of vegetables, a topic Meredith was getting tired of already. She instead let her eyes wander around the cafeteria, looking at all the other tables full of students.

The tables in the center usually held the most popular kids, mostly jocks and cheerleaders and other well known socialites. Thankfully for Meredith Demetres wasn't in her lunch otherwise he'd be sitting at one of those tables now, probably flocked with girls. She brightened up a little, even though she didn't approve of Shadow picking on Demetres for some reason, she couldn't say she didn't disapprove either. It **was** pretty funny to watch.

She looked over to the next table which held the student council kids, all of them well known around school but they took their studies far more seriously. One girl that stood out from the rest she believed to be the school president. She had dark fuchsia hair that went into a bun giving her a mature and professional appearance, looking more like an army soldier than a student. The serious and straightforward look never failed to leave her face, making Meredith wonder if she ever smiled much. You have to wonder how she got to be president with that personality, but as far as Meredith was concerned, better her than who the other runner was.

Speaking of the other runner, she turned to see one of the tables at the far end of the cafeteria to see the one and only Gene Stuckerman. He was known for being the biggest teacher's pet in school and for trying to enforce the rules on everybody that he tends to go overboard with. When he tried running for school president, no one voted for him and he was dubbed with having the most embarrassing defeat in school history. Even with the other candidate being as strict and serious as she appeared was much more preferable than Gene any day.

His dream was to be a superhero and he never let anyone forget it, consistently bringing it up. Meredith knew right away he didn't have the right way of thinking to be one, him getting overprotective of rules to the point of the most ridiculous of stuff. Truthfully, he did more harm than good and if anything was just an annoyance. If he was ever allowed to be a superhero, let's just say I'd have to be a villain first, thought Meredith.

She went on to some other tables finding a few other guys, one noticeably wearing extremely tacky clothing. Down at the last table in the corner she spotted two guys she was more familiar with. They both sat across each other and were relatively tall guys, the red head one being quite big. The smaller one was a skinny tired appearing guy who usually wore his long gray hair in a ponytail. He was known for sleeping through classes but he never did during lunch. He talked a lot with the guy across from him, the two getting along very well.

The large guy across from him she believed was named Reggie, who usually had a goofy smile on. She especially recognized him not just because he was easily one of the biggest guys in school and for his orange hair, but from when he actually sat and ate lunch with that guy who ran into yesterday.

During that time she was both finally happy that he seemed to have found a friend and also at the same time feeling guilty herself for not having gone over and making friends with him too. Sadly it wasn't long before she saw the mad scientist looking student eating by himself again, and Reggie sitting at the other table. As much as Reggie and that other guy seemed to be having a good time, Reggie would occasionally glance over to where his former friend was sitting and wear a sad frown.

She wondered what had went on between them to stop hanging out together, feeling partly ashamed for half-thinking she could get him all to herself now. She knew she much rather have him have friends and be happy even if he didn't know she existed. Meredith wished she could do something about the situation, but she'd have to be able to actually talk to him first.

"Earth to Meredith! Are you with us?" Meredith looked up at Sydney who was waving her hand in front of her face. "You've been so quiet this whole time, don't tell me I'm starting to sound like my grandma and bore people to death."

"No, it's not that. I'm just thinking…" Meredith answered, hoping her friend wouldn't ask any further. Sydney however glanced at the direction Meredith was looking in. Seeing the green spiked hair guy from yesterday, a big grin formed on her face.

"Oh can you feel the love tonight…" Sydney sang.

Meredith turned bright red. "Agh! Stop! Please, he might hear you!" she begged, some of the other students on the end of their table began looking their way. Thankfully Sydney had the sense to stop and laughed.

"Sorry, but I'm just so happy for you! I never had said anything before, but I always thought he had a sort of charm about him. If only we knew what his name was…"

"His name is August." Blair said just as she was taking a bite out of her sandwich.

"What?! Why didn't you tell us that before!" asked Sydney.

"You didn't ask. He's in chemistry with me." Blair answered.

"Well thanks for the late update Mrs. Helpful. Anyways Meredith, now's the perfect chance to go sit with him!" Sydney ushered. He wasn't always in the cafeteria for lunch so what Sydney said held some truth to it. Meredith however could barely quit her knees to stop shaking nonetheless registering the thought of doing just that.

"I can't! I mean, he seems content and…he'll probably think I'm annoying and bothersome. He's too smart to pay attention to someone like me." she said looking down at her fidgeting hands on top of her lap. She then spotted Shadow under the table though it wasn't looking at her. It was eating scraps of food from the floor, not a picky eater for it used to living off of what it could get. From her guess it might be listening in on their conversation but what it made of it she wouldn't know.

"Look, I doubt he's not another Blair, so you already have good odds at succeeding." Sydney commented.

"Hey!" Blair said begrudgingly since it was rather true.

"And he always looks so lonely sitting by himself. I'm sure he wouldn't reject you for sitting with him. He'd be a fool not to!" Sydney exclaimed.

"Maybe…" Meredith said still a little doubtful.

"Look, remember when I went out for cheerleading? It was a sunny afternoon, I was in high spirits and-"

"Okay, okay, I'll go!" Meredith said rushing out of her seat, not wanting to hear that story for the hundredth time since freshmen year. She started regretting that decision however as she grew closer to where August sat. He didn't look up as he stared down into his tray, his mind somewhere else. Nervousness welled up in her gut as she tried desperately to think of something to say.

Come on Meredith, this is nothing compared to what you've already been through. The worst that could happen is that he remembers you and runs off, again. Meredith turns around, not feeling as confident before, if you call what she felt before confidence. No, I can't let fear run my life, I…I want to at least say hi to him, to let him know that he's not alone. She turned back around, August not having noticed her yet, and was about to say something before someone else caught her off.

"Hold it right there Miss!" Not a second later went by until a built man in unusually short shorts was in front of her wearing a goofy looking hall monitor uniform. It didn't take a genius to tell who this was.

"Uh, hey Gene…" Meredith said uneasily. She was never too fond of the guy, she's had him in a class or two before and he never failed to get under her skin. If him wearing extremely short shorts weren't bad enough along with his uni-brow, his personality bugged her even more.

"The cafeteria is a dangerous place for a delicate flower such as yourself to cross alone. As hall monitor of this school it is my duty to escort you back to your table." He said, not noticing Meredith's annoyed look. She probably wouldn't dislike him so much if he didn't always treat her like some helpless dumb naïve girl. She didn't have time to object however as Gene took her hand and dragged her back to her table, only giving a brief glance back to Frogg who wasn't even at his seat anymore.

Once back, she glumly took her seat with her friends staring curious-eyed at Gene who stood there as though he did the most righteous act possible. "Enjoy your lunch ladies; I have to get back to upholding justice around here. Oh and Meredith, if you ever find yourself in need for a hall monitor, I'm at your service." He said giving a small card to her. She took it only to be polite and found it to have his phone number on it.

As Gene walked off, Meredith slammed her head on the table. "Urg! I was so close! Can this day get any worse?" She mumbled.

Suddenly, a yowl was heard which made them all turn around to see Gene had just gotten a wedgie. "I think it actually got a little better." commented an amused Blair. Everyone in the cafeteria started laughing as Gene ran out trying to get his underwear together.

"Wow that was the fastest wedgie ever! I didn't even see who did it!" Sydney said impressed. Meredith then noticed a shadow slip under the table from the direction Gene went. She looked under to see Shadow's white eyes blinking knowing it got caught.

"Well, whoever it was, I say thank you." Meredith said with an appreciative smile, in its own way it had shown that it had forgiven Meredith. Shadow blinked its eyes again, a warm glow emanating from them as it too finally felt forgiven.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Okay this took way longer than expected but I'm pretty sure this chapter is finally done. I was having such a hard time figuring out what would go in but I eventually got down to business and did it. I'm really nervous with this one since I'm taking a few more big leaps of faith with two new characters of my own, one that my brother helped out with, and the other actually has his own viewpoint at the bottom and I'm still trying to figure him out. If there's anything bad about them critic wise then don't hesitate to tell me. I'm trying it out so hopefully they won't be too bad and add something to the story, I've already got plans for them but I want to make sure they're good first. Now I've added italic to show the character's thoughts, anyways enjoy chapter seven.

---

"Where do you have to look to find a decent working vending machine in this place?!" aggravated Frogg headed down towards a deserted hallway to where there were two more vending machines. He was not in what you would call a good mood and that's without the vending machine trouble. You'd think that with his newfound luck of befriending Demetres Spyres the son of the founder and owner of Shadow Tech. Corp he'd be skipping around like he won the lottery, but that was not the case.

The fact Demetres even seemed to like Frogg was unbelievable as it was since they actually go to the same school, but to also think he was worthy of getting a job as a scientist there. It was the best thing to happen to him in like, forever! It even rivaled the time he made his own necrotic blaster and his father took him to a shooting range to test it out since the neighborhood banned them from doing target practice in the park.

_I bet all those shooters didn't expect a little boy bringing a laser gun instead of a regular gun._ Frogg thought smiling briefly at the fond memory with his dad. His smile soon disappeared at the mention of his father and the recent events from last night rushed back to him. His father, in other words the source of all his stress.

When he had gotten home he immediately told his parents of the great news, ignoring their first concerns as to why he was so late. Only stopping to breathe at the end of his story he was expecting his parents to jump for joy or something to that extent. On the contrary they remained unusually silent. His mother giving off an uneasy expression as if not sure what face to make while his dad was strikingly pale as if he just saw a ghost creep up through the floor, and being a firm believer of science that would be quite a surprise indeed.

"Uh…That's, well…um… great news August." His mom had said being the first one to speak with the cheerfulness in her voice sounding noticeably forced. "Right honey?" she asked prodding her husband back to life. As if he was broken from a trance, he merely looked back to his wife and then to Frogg in a distant manner, his mind still somewhere else.

Frogg wasn't fooled; he knew his parents better and could tell something was up. Regularly they would have been ecstatic, mainly his father for any science related matters. Besides getting some Nobel Prize or other, this was basically the closest for Frogg to becoming a renowned evil scientist like his dad but he didn't seem to react at all to this, not in a good way for sure.

"Okay, what's going on?" Frogg asked puzzled and at the same time starting to get a little ticked. _Shouldn't they be happy for me? Don't they care at all that something great has finally happened to me?_

His mom's eyes drifted to the side as if searching for the right words to say. "Well, you still have high school to finish. Wouldn't school and a job be a bit much to handle? It's not like you need the money-"

"It's not just about the money mom! If I can land a job there, so many possibilities will open up to me. I will be a villain just like you guys in no time! School won't be an issue either; I can probably graduate already since I'm that smart anyways. I mean being at school is just a waste of time for me if I could be doing more important things with my time, even Demetres agrees-"

"And if this Demetres said to go jump off a cliff would you do that too?!" his father suddenly shouted so forcefully that Frogg jumped back in surprise. His mom also appeared a bit taken aback by this outburst, obviously not looking forward to where this conversation was heading.

However this was only a small setback as Frogg getting angrier quickly retaliated. "What is that supposed to mean?! Do you think I'm smart enough? Is that it?! You of all people-"

"Of course I know you're smart enough and that's why you should know not to believe everything you're told! You can't just bet your whole future on what some stranger you've barely known for a day says!" There's a pause before his father relaxes into a calmer composure. "You have your whole life ahead of you. You can do so much better than Shadow tech son, I know you already are-"

"Well if I supposedly can, then why hasn't anything better come along? This could possibly be my big break and you want me to just ignore it?! Can't you be happy that I've finally gotten an opportunity of a lifetime here?!"

An awkward silence fills the room, everyone at a standstill. His father then straightens into a hardened look and speaks barely above a whisper, "You're not going back to that place and that's final."

Frogg stands there motionless with shock, staring at his dad as though he wasn't even sure this man was the father he had known for all these years. With an angry huff he turns and leaves the kitchen, wishing the kitchen had a door so he could've slammed it. When he was out of earshot, he mumbled darkly, "Thanks for the support dad."

Frogg had never had a fight with his dad like that, ever. If there was anyone he could look to for advice or to be cheered up by it was him. His dad understood him better than anyone else in the world and was always there for him… that was until now.

Frogg shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. He tried to instead concentrate on which soda he wanted from the vending machine, almost forgetting the reason he came in the first place. Once in front of one of the refrigerator sized contraptions he carefully placed a dollar with his three pincers into a slot, making sure not to rip it as he has done on numerous occasions. Luckily he didn't have as much trouble this time and scanned the buttons for a suitable beverage.

"Which one are you getting?" Frogg jumped back in surprise not knowing there was another person around. He looked around frantically but spotted someone crouching down between the two vending machines with their head down low making it difficult to distinguish who it was. The said person did not look up or move from his position, assuming it was a he. It took Frogg a second to realize that the person meant what soda he was getting and looked over the choices again while keeping an eye on the mysterious figure.

"Uh… I guess number 5…" he said not remembering exactly what that one was called in his confusion.

"Fizzy Fizz, good choice." the figure said from the floor not looking up. Frogg proceeded to getting his drink as the said person showed no sign of moving and so deemed him as non-threatening.

Hearing the clanging from inside the machine, a green can dropped into the small slot. Frogg reached for it but realized he had forgotten his second and probably the most important dilemma he had to deal with vending machines; his claws were too big for the slot. It wasn't his pincer fingers that were too large, but the base of his claw would prevent him from going any further and getting a good hold on his drink. He struggled to position it right enough to grab the can but the base bumped against the surface of the slot.

"Great…" he mumbled making a second attempt. When that failed he gave up, not wanting to waste energy on a useless struggle. He wondered why he even kept bothering with these machines if it was nearly impossible for him to get anything. Maybe someday he would build vending machines that were a lot less troublesome, but he'd most likely forget. _There goes another buck_.

A second later he saw another hand reach in the slot, effortlessly pulling out his soda. "Hey! That's mine-" he stops mid-sentence as he sees it's the figure that was previously on the floor a moment ago. What made him stop was the sight of the gas-mask the figure was wearing which completely covered his face. Frogg was almost too stunned to notice he was holding the can out to him.

"You wanted it right?" The gas-masked figure asked, the voice sounding deep and muffled. The mask had two eye holes that resembled a fly's eyes and a large nozzle pointing downward indicating where he likely breathes out of. Frogg wouldn't doubt if that mask came from an alien costume in a science fiction movie for it just looked that bizarre.

Frogg nodded slowly, putting his guard up again. "Uhhhh……thanks?" hesitantly taking the drink, the figure went back down into his spot. Curiously Frogg leaned over to see what the masked figure was doing since he faced the wall. From the corner of one of the vending machines Frogg could spot the form of an insect slowly crawling about. "You're watching a beetle?" he asked puzzled.

"Yep." was all the man replied.

"…Okayyy… Uh, so do you have B lunch too or are you skipping class?" Frogg asked still quite curious about this student, if he was a student. He might be a hired exterminator for that'd explain the gas mask and why he's watching bugs, but for Frogg's sake he hoped not or he'd feel incredibly stupid for asking such questions. He only wondered since aside from the gas mask the figure wore average teenage clothes, even if a bit heavy for the weather.

"I have B lunch." he answered, _so much for the exterminator theory_.

"I haven't seen you around lunch before, are you here a lot?" Frogg was pretty darn sure he would've remembered this guy if he'd seen him before.

"Yep." the man said again. Frogg stood there awkwardly trying to think of something else to say, finding that nothing else came to mind and that he was getting nowhere he turned to leave.

"You know, most people would've chosen Sugar Rush soda." Frogg stopped and looked over his shoulder, now getting the feeling the strange student wasn't done talking yet. "I can tell you're different from the usual brand of people, and not just by what soda you chose. You're weird just like me."

Frogg for a moment felt insulted until the masked guy continued, "It's good to be weird; it's the weird people that make a difference in the world. Without people like us the world would never progress."

Suddenly the man stood up and without looking at Frogg said, "August K. Frogg, correct?" Frogg taken aback by this guy's knowledge of him nodded forgetting the gas masked person wasn't looking at him. That didn't seem to matter as the man turned and pointed his hand at him in a dramatic fashion. "You are the only one worthy enough to be my eternal rival!" He shouted so loud it echoed down the empty hallway.

It took a moment for Frogg to register this and all that his mind could come up with was "What?"

"It makes sense doesn't it? You and I are both equally matched in physical strengths, are both intellectually equal, in nature frogs and insects are formidable foes…" Frogg resisted the urge to point out that insects never stood a chance against frogs.

"…and there is the fact we both aspire to become villains."

"Wait, how did you know that I wanted to be a villain?!" Frogg asked getting more bewildered by this guy every second; it wasn't something he blatantly told people. If being branded as a metal clawed German nerd freak wasn't bad enough, the last thing people needed to know was that he wanted to be an evil villain. People would think he'd be mental and need to be locked up in some asylum somewhere and that was not the way he wanted to spend the rest of his life. He could be known as being evil **after** school, but not during it, otherwise life would really be torture. The way this guy casually brought up the topic made Frogg question his comment on being an intellectual equal.

"Well I had to make sure you were suitable to be my rival so I did my research. After all, it takes evil to know evil." He answered matter-of-factly.

"You did research on me?! Look, I don't know who you are or what your deal is, but-"

"Ah that's right, how inconsiderate of me, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm known as many things but you can call me……well, truthfully I haven't come up with an evil name for myself yet. I guess in the meantime you can know me as Fred."

"More like lunatic." Frogg said to himself, not thinking that Fred would be able to hear him under that mask.

"THAT's IT!" Frogg bumbled back into the vending machine. This guy's going to give me a heart attack! He thought not expecting his voice to get that loud. It was as though some dark lord you hear in a movie was speaking through instead of a student. Maybe that helmet is apart of the whole villain getup and if so that'd explain why his voice sounds like that, Frogg theorized.

"What's it?!" Frogg asked finally responded in confusion.

"Lunatic, or rather Loon-a-tick! A play on words, it's perfect! I should've known that you would come up with such a befitting name! I was going for something like the vermin, but that's been overused a lot by insect themed bad guys but I doubt anyone would ever expect Loon-a-tick." Frogg stared in disbelief, not sure what to make of this guy, except he knew for sure this guy was indeed a lunatic.

An alarming bell rang through the hallway signaling the end of lunch to Frogg's relief. "It looks like we must part ways but only for now as from this day forward; we are lifetime rivals!" Lunatic made his way past Frogg, not noticing his gaping expression.

Left alone in the hallway, Frogg eventually got out, "What the heck just happened?"

---

_Oh come on, the last time I checked the clock was three thirty, and it's only been five minutes since then?!_ Meredith looked back down to her sketch paper rather disappointed that she couldn't think of anything to draw otherwise her boredom wouldn't be an issue. She nervously tapped her pencil on the blank sheet as her teacher and classmates were discussing movies, not really staying on topic since this was a history class, though if that meant no homework than who was she to complain?

Meredith glanced down to her feet where Shadow was, or where she assumed he'd be. Since lunch nothing out of the ordinary had happened and Shadow had been well behaved and acted just like any other shadow in the world, except that it wasn't like any other shadow at all. It was really alive and did things and expressed emotions like a human, but in no way was human. How something could possibly exist and remain in secrecy for so long was another mystery. For what reason was it in Shadow Tech. Corp anyway and now the irony of the name irked her. She hadn't really gotten to thinking about this until now with the shock of it all and for the fact Shadow wouldn't be able to answer her directly.

Shadow Tech. Corp as known as that company is in the line of science mechanics, keeping a shadow creature from the public definitely sounded mighty suspicious to her. She remembered Blair discussing one time about government conspiracies and how they could be keeping all kinds of secrets hidden away from the public. She wondered if extraterrestrials was one of those big secrets but then why Shadow Tech. Corp? Biology and genetics wasn't apart of their specialty, of course who's to say they aren't totally being honest with the public since they already kept something like this secret. Even so having an alien locked up in an old building in the middle of the city didn't seem like a bright idea to her.

_Great, now my head's starting to hurt._ She looked back down to notice Shadow's eyes blinking up at her to which she gave a passive smile. _Huh, even though it's been barely more than a day, I think I already kind of like the guy._ For whatever her opinion was worth, Shadow was by far not a monster. Sure some of its earlier antics weren't great but nothing horribly bad. She could actually hold conversations with him and he had a personality. _Who knows? Maybe we might even turn out to be friends? _

Still it felt beyond odd to have someone else with you all the time, one that literally will follow your every move. How was she to have any privacy anymore with a creature attached to her, especially with hygienic needs and when she's asleep?

Unsettled by that thought Meredith jerked her head back to the front of the classroom, everyone laughing at a joke that had been made. _With such a dramatic change in my life, it's weird that everything else is still the same as it always had been._ A sour feeling tightened in her chest, and that means_ I'm still the same timid girl in everyone's eyes, and they'll only have a lower opinion of me if they knew the dark secret I now carry._

"Anyways, before you all go remember next week is the last week of the quarter so prepare for your tests. You will be switching classes next quarter so I expect you all to not mistakenly come here by mistake." the teacher said catching Meredith's interest. _Finally some good news!_ She perked up knowing she had art next semester and it was one of the best classes, to her anyway.

For once she was actually anxious for the semester to begin so she could enjoy her schedule, the only down point was that she also has Chemistry, music appreciation (random class), and P.E. She already had English, History, and Math for this semester as demanding as the work was. Luckily her fourth class was reading for pleasure where she mostly used for doing homework in the other classes. Hopefully she would have less homework and more fun since she knew Sydney and Blair would also have P.E with her. Getting in the same class with one of her friends was rare but both of them is nothing short of a blessing.

The bell rang and Meredith turned out to be the first one out of the classroom. Nearly colliding with one or two students, didn't want another repeat, she made her way to the commons area. She stood in the usual meeting spot with her friends, realizing she for once was the first one there and had to wait for them. Excitement and nervous energy kept her from standing still as she bounced in place. Noticing the white eyes from her shadow she smiled guiltily seeing the confused and worn out expression from keeping up with her.

"Sorry, I'm just eager for next semester. You see I get different classes and I get to be in both art and a class with my friends, you know the two girls I sat with at lunch." Shadow nodded though it's hard to tell, but the strange thing was that it seemed like the more time they spent together the more she knew what it was saying or rather what it was feeling. It wasn't like telepathy but she started to feel sparks, if for no lack of a better word, coming into her head. For instance like a telephone wire connecting from one source and sending messages to another one but here she was being sent bits and pieces of thoughts or emotions.

_Boy I need to give my head a break or else I'll never be able to relax._ Shadow tilted its' head and then again she wondered if the process worked the other way around too.

"MEREDITH!" Meredith jumped in surprise as she was hugged from behind. "You're the first one here huh?"

"S-Sydney, give me a little more warning next time." Meredith isn't used to being surprised like that, but knowing Sydney it was to be expected.

"Well just as long as it's not me being hugged." Blair replied coming up around the two. Usually Sydney was the one to torture Blair to her dismay.

"Jesh! I'm just trying to lighten you up, and from the sound of it I need to give you more hugs." Sydney retorted.

"There's a thing called personal space you know."

"Hmph! If that's the way you're going to be than perhaps you're not allowed to come with us to Meredith's place."

"What? My house?!" Meredith asked. It was usually never good news when Sydney planned something without you knowing it.

"Yeah, it's been a while since we've gotten together and I for one can't wait another week until gym class!" Sydney explained.

"But at my place? My mom's not going to be home today and I'm not sure she'd like the idea of having people over without her consent…" Meredith explained, but that was not the reason she didn't want them over.

_Agh, of all the rotten timing in the world! How am I supposed to handle Shadow and friends at the same time? Not too mention that I'll have to keep Shadow a secret from them as well, otherwise what then?_ The thought of having her only friends find out she's got a shadow creature with her and then turn their backs on her…she didn't dare even try to imagine that.

"Whoa, relax Meredith. We've done it before and you're mom just said to call you, right? So there's no problem." Meredith was desperately hoping she hadn't remembered. "Come on it'll be great time! We'll watch home movies, eat popcorn, prank call Gene since he gave you his phone number, do our fingernails, talk about boys…"

"You probably should say something or we'll never get her to shut up." Blair commented.

"……I…guess-"

"Great! Let's stop by the gas station along the way, I've been craving some Sugar Rush soda and the vending machines here keep running out of them!" Sydney was already on the move on their usual route.

"I prefer Fizzy Fizz myself, those Sugar Rush sodas are just asking for head aches." Blair said following Sydney. Meredith went behind in step, keeping out of her friends' usual feuds. She checked around her for the off chance that Shadow might not be with her. He was on the floor looking up occasionally but careful to not attract any attention. From the looks and the emotions she was getting from him, she could tell she wasn't the only one worried.

---

"The bell tolls at last." a breathless voice whispers, taking in the autumn air in. He was by no means a fan of cold weather but he was much more comfortable outside than in the confines of a school. Too crowded, negative aura was the norm, suffocating was probably a fitting term to describe it. He knew this way was not as efficient, but then again he was never one to do things by efficiency, only to be effective.

He sat cross legged upon a sculpture that was right next to the school entrance where he could easily observe from without someone reaching him. Usually the other students would rush out one by one only to later stand around idly chatting with their friends. He never really attended school although he was supposed to be a student so no one really recognized him. That was for his goal however for if he was to gain too much attention his whole purpose for being there would be for naught. Of course there has been one girl with fuchsia hair who keeps yelling at him for defacing school property and such but that was the closest to someone he was acquainted with.

He glimpsed around the courtyard starting to get an idea of who's who from the masses of students. High school sure isn't that different from the real world, he thought already establishing who were the jocks, punks, and social outcasts. His eye landed on the gas masked student when on outcasts; well I'm pretty sure he's a student. The gas masked guy at the moment was over by some ant hills in a crouched position observing them apparently. _Weird fellow that one._

He went back to where the majority of students were, catching the eye of two girls looking up his way. They turned around quickly to which he made a mental check that sitting on top a statue probably made him stand out more than blend in. A sudden chill aroused him as he recognized the familiar presence. He looked down at the tall dark slender figure coming out of the doorway and being immediately greeted by the crowd. He frowned; only one guy could ever visibly irritate him from just walking by, Demetres Spyres.

Demetres smiled and cruised his way around his onlookers, girls started giggling when he came close. _Whatever fantasized image they have of him they obviously have no idea who he is._ How people took to him so easily was not only by his looks but Demetres was a very charismatic character that knew how to make people like him. He also knew exactly how to identify someone and what to say to make that person to do what he wanted. He was in every way a manipulator, and a scary one at that. Few people could see past that false exterior, and even fewer knew what really goes on in his head. Demetres was by far not someone to be tampered lightly with, and that's why he had to do everything in his power to make sure he's stopped.

Keeping his eyes on the dark figure he had to suppress the urge to jump right out and attack him right there in then. _I can't face him yet, I still don't know what he's planning and I can't risk being found out so soon._ Needless to say this wasn't going to be easy, but he had to put his trust in fate that the answer will come in time. For now he would have better chances confronting the other one from his vision. That was controversial because of the dark intentions awaiting that one, but he was the key character to the puzzle.

_Ahhh, such as the life of one who could see into the future._ The figure stirred a stick into a bottle and raised it to his mouth to blow on. A bubble formed, gracefully lifting into the air before it popped.


End file.
